Congo Rebel Chief Unalived by His Teenage Bodyguard

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]The rebel who spent 30 years fighting for freedom was killed by his own child soldier. It's January 21st, 2001, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

[00:00:10]Laurent Kabila sits in the presidential palace he fought decades to reach. He started as a young Marxist in the 1960s, leading small bands against dictator Mobutu. For 30 years he hid in the mountains, barely surviving, dreaming of revolution. Then Rwanda and Uganda offered him an army. They wanted Mobutu gone and gave Kabila thousands of fighters, including child soldiers. He marched across Congo and seized the capital in 1997. But his foreign sponsors wanted diamond mines and military bases. When Kabila said no, they turned against him. His inner circle grew tense. The same child soldiers who gave him power now surrounded him with loaded guns.

[00:00:48]18-year-old Rashidi Kasereka stands guard in the palace. He's been trained since childhood to kill without question. Kasereka raises his rifle and fires point-blank. Kabila collapses as his son Joseph rushes to take control.

[00:01:02]The revolutionary destroyed by his own army was Laurent Désiré Kabila.