From a professional, republican army under Joseph Kabila to a criminal rabble under Tshisekedi

On 13 December 2025, speaking to young people in Kinshasa, Félix Tshisekedi declared: "When I took over the leadership of this country, pardon the expression, I found an army of tramps."

His remarks sparked a fierce backlash. Mr Tshisekedi inherited a well-structured, professional force, ranked seventh in Africa, thanks to the work of his predecessor, President Joseph Kabila Kabange, who had reunified the DRC and built the army now known as the FARDC.

Mr Tshisekedi has always held the FARDC in contempt. The proof: he chose to turn to the FDLR, the Rwandan génocidaires, and to the Burundian army, as well as to mercenaries paid $8,000 a month, while a FARDC soldier earns less than $300 and starves on the battlefield.

The real tramp, in truth, is Mr Tshisekedi himself, along with his family and political clan. He has pulled off the feat of undoing his predecessor's patriotic work, even turning the FARDC into a tribal affair. Many senior FARDC officers, Congolese Tutsis and Swahili speakers, are now behind bars in Ndolo and Makala on slanderous and false charges.

President Kabila built and structured this army well, only for Mr Tshisekedi to tribalise it. In my view, a twinning arrangement with Rwanda's RDF, the Ugandan army and the Kenyan army should have been set up at the time to professionalise the Congolese military further.