Congo rebel leader John Tshibangu extradited from Tanzania for trial

Renegade Congolese colonel John Tshibangu who has been extradited from Tanzania. /Courtesy
Renegade Congolese colonel John Tshibangu who has been extradited from Tanzania. /Courtesy

A renegade Congolese colonel, who had threatened to depose president Joseph Kabila, has been extradited from Tanzania.

John Tshibangu

will be prosecuted for rebellion, Congo's defence minister told Reuters on Monday.

In a video circulated on social media last month, Tshibangu, who had been based in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo, gave the president a 45-day ultimatum to leave or "we are going to take Kabila down".

He detained by authorities in Tanzania towards the end of last month.

"John Tshibangu is in Kinshasa. We are going to leave him to face justice for rebellion, a crime catered for and punished by the Congolese penal code," Defence minister Crispin Atama Tabe told Reuters by text message.

Tshibangu used to be a military commander in the central Congolese region of Kasai. He defected in 2012 and moved to the lawless east, long a haunt of would-be Congolese rebels.

Kabila's refusal to step down when his mandate expired in December 2016 has emboldened several armed groups.

It has fueled violence and raised the prospect of the vast, mineral-rich nation sliding back into the kind of wars that killed millions in the 1990s, mostly from hunger and disease.

WATCH: The latest news from around the World