A military tribunal has handed former President Joseph Kabila a death sentence for treason and war crimes tied to alleged ties with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, a ruling that could derail fragile peace talks and deepen rifts in a nation gripped by eastern conflict that has killed thousands since January.

Kabila, 53, who led the DRC from 2001 to 2019, was convicted in absentia on charges including intentional murder, rape, torture, and attacks on protected sites, linked to M23's lightning offensives that captured Goma and displaced nearly a million.

The court, presided by Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, imposed the maximum penalty under the Military Penal Code, plus $29 billion in government damages and $2 billion each to North and South Kivu provinces.

The verdict caps a seven-month trial that lifted Kabila's immunity in May, following his exile in South Africa and a February op-ed slamming President Felix Tshisekedi's handling of the war.

Prosecutors cited testimony from convicted rebel Eric Nkuba implicating Kabila in funding M23 via ex-ally Corneille Nangaa, though Kabila denied collusion, branding the process a "dictatorship's ploy."

Critics like Goma analyst Nzanzu Masomeko Hubert called it "politically motivated," warning it sabotages Qatar-mediated Doha talks where the DRC and M23 inch toward truce. Kabila's PPRD party decried it as "unfair," while Tshisekedi's camp hailed justice for victims of atrocities that rights groups say claim 319 civilian lives in July alone.

The UN has urged accountability across lines, but executions—banned since 2003 until lifted in March—remain untested, with 13 soldiers on death row since January.

As the ruling ripples through a war-weary east, where M23 controls key mines fueling global tech, it tests Tshisekedi's grip ahead of 2028 polls and the fragile U.S.-Qatar peace blueprint.

Kabila's camp vows appeals, but the sentence—echoing his father's 2001 assassination—risks inflaming divides in a country where 7 million are displaced and famine looms.