DR Congo's former president Joseph Kabila met with local leaders in Goma, a city controlled by the M23 rebels, on Thursday, according to journalists in eastern Congolese city near the border with Rwanda.
A team of AFP journalists saw Kabila meet local religious figures in the presence of the M23's spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka, without giving a statement.
On Wednesday, three people close to Kabila told Reuters had arrived in Goma over the weekend.
Kabila's visit comes despite the former president facing the possibility of a treason trial over his alleged support for the Rwandan-backed M23.
Last week, the DR Congo's Senate voted to strip Kabila's immunity, thereby enabling his prosecution.
Read moreFormer DR Congo president Kabila loses immunity over alleged M23 links
Felix Tshisekedi, Kabila's successor as the Democratic Republic of Congo's president, accuses Kabila of being the brains behind the armed group, which has seized swathes of the resource-rich Congolese east with Rwanda's help.
Kabila's visit to Goma could complicate a US-backed bid to end the M23 rebellion in eastern Congo, which contains valuable minerals that US President Donald Trump's administration is keen to help mine.
The 53-year-old's visit comes after the DR Congo's ruling party warned him to stay out of Congolese affairs, with the Congolese government locked in talks with the US and Rwanda aimed at ending the fighting.
Kabila, who denies accusations that he supports the M23 insurgency, agreed to step down following protests and external pressure in 2018 after almost two decades in power. He has been out of the country since late 2023.
'Kabila is not Congolese'
A day after the Senate voted to lift his parliamentary immunity, Kabila blasted the current government's "dictatorship" and said he would be visiting Goma "in the next few days".
In a rare speech streamed live on the internet, Kabila took aim at Tshisekedi and his government.
"Following a simple rumour from the street or social networks, about my alleged presence in Goma, where I will be going in the next few days... the regime in place in Kinshasa took arbitrary decisions with disconcerting levity, which testifies to the spectacular retreat of democracy in our country," Kabila said.
Tshisekedi's party hit back the next day, saying the "Rwandan" should stop meddling in the country's affairs.
"Kabila is not Congolese," Augustin Kabuya, Secretary-General of Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) insisted in a speech Sunday at the party's headquarters in Kinshasa.
"Let him leave the Congolese to deal with their own problems. He, a Rwandan subject whose rule was imposed on us, must leave the Congolese alone," Kabuya added, accusing him of leading the M23.
Kabuya said the former president "has nothing to teach us when it comes to democracy", referring to people killed by the authorities during protests against Kabila's rule.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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