𝐃𝐑𝐂: Who is Corneille Nangaa, the man leading the M23 rebels?

Former election-chief-turned-rebel-leader Corneille Nangaa has gone from overseeing Congo’s contested 2018 election to leading a powerful insurgency against the DRC’s President Félix Tshisekedi. 

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the AFC, a political-military coalition of political parties and rebel groups including the M23, in Goma on 30 January 2025. (Tony Karumba/AFP)

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the AFC, a political military coalition of political parties and rebel groups including the M23, in Goma on 30 January 2025. © Tony Karumba/AFP

Now head of the Congo River Alliance (CRA) and allied with the Rwanda-backed M23, Corneille Nangaa Yubeluo has seized key cities, including Goma, and vows to march on Kinshasa. Sentenced to death in absentia, he remains at the centre of the DRC’s escalating conflict. How did he rise to power?

Born on 9 July 1970 in what is now Haut-Uele Province in the DRC, Nangaa started his career far from the battlefield. He studied economics at the University of Kinshasa before working with international organisations, including the UN Development Programme.

National Electoral Commission (CENI) under then-president Joseph Kabila. He was responsible for organising the delayed 2018 elections and controversially declared Félix Tshisekedi the winner. His tenure at CENI ended in 2021 amid allegations of electoral fraud and US sanctions for “undermining DRC elections“.

Why did he turn against the Congolese government? 

Initially aligned with the ruling elite, Nangaa later distanced himself from President Tshisekedi. Ahead of the 2023 elections, Nangaa said that the 2018 result had been manipulated in a secret deal between Tshisekedi and Kabila, which Tshisekedi denies. 

If I created the monster, I think it is up to me to defeat it,In August 2023, Nangaa reemerged as a key figure in the DRC’s armed conflicts, launching the CRA-a coalition of 17 political parties, two political groups and armed militias. Among them was the March 23 Movement (M23), an insurgent group backed by Rwanda. Nangaa has since positioned himself as a leading figure in the rebellion against Tshisekedi’s goverment.