Laurent Kabila Gone But Zaire Ghosts Haunt Tshisekedi

President Felix Tshisekedi has been having sleepless nights over the preparations to commemeorate 25 years since the assassination of former revolutionary leader Laurent Desire Kabila.

A Kabila family member said on Friday, “as we commemorate the quarter century of the assassination of this great leader, we are relieved and at the same time indignant to share with you deeply troubling and heartbreaking information concerning Mzee’s memory.”

He adds that on November 28, 2025, Kabilas official residence commonly known as the Gulf was stormed by heavily armed soldiers wearing the Republican Guard uniforms.

They disarmed security personnel assigned to the residence and family members were forced to leave and prohibited from entering until further notice, Republican Guard soldiers said they were conducting a security search of the residence.

Laurent Desire Kabila took up arms and waged a protracted military struggle against dictator Field marshal Mobutu Ssesseko and effectively dethroned him.

He changed the Country’s name from Zaire to the current Democratic Republic of Congo.

However, Laurent Kabila a Marxist ideologue would later be assassinated inside his office on January 16, 2001.

Government announced his death on January 18 and was succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila.

Today Congolese are marking 25 years since their leader was executed by his bodyguard, Rashidi Mizele, a former child soldier.

TopAfricanews explores the highlights of last moments of Laurent Kabila.

On the fateful day, Kabila is said to have been holding a discussion with an Economics Advisor at his office, Marble Palace in Kinshasa on 16 January.

It is said that a teenage soldier entered the president’s office and walked straight to Kabila and bent over as though whispering to Kabila.

Kabila, also seemingly assumed the soldier wanted to talk to him and leaned towards him.

The soldier then pulled out a revolver gun and shot the president four times, and then escaped with other conspirators while the palace resounded with gunfire.

Another version claimed the plot to kill Kabila started in early January when a dissident group of younger soldiers went to Brazzaville and drew up a document setting out Operation Mbongo Zero.

‘Mbongo’ is a Swahili word for buffalo, a reference to the ex-president’s corpulence.

The assassination plan would involve infiltrating strategic positions in Kinshasa including the presidential palace, the national radio and television station and the headquarters of the country’s electricity company.

It involved some 75 members of Kabila’s bodyguard at the presidential palace, many of whom were arrested after the killing.