But he had been due to remain at the forefront of the BBC coverage of the men's FA Cup and the World Cup in 2026.
Kabila, 53, has not commented on the accusations but has in the past denied any connection with the insurgents.Nearly 90 senators on Thursday voted in favour of his treason prosecution, while five opposed it.
"The senate authorises the prosecution and lifting of Joseph Kabila's immunity," declared senate Speaker Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde after Thursday's vote.The former president, who led the country between 2001 and 2019, did not appear before the senate to defend himself.After stepping down, he was given the title of "senator for life", which gives him legal immunity.
In order to pursue the charges against him, DR Congo's military prosecutor had asked the senate to lift this privilege.Kabila has been living outside the country, in South Africa, for the past two years. But at the beginning of last month he said he would be returning to help find a solution to the conflict in the east.
A few weeks later, there were reports that the former president had come back and was in Goma, one of the cities captured by the M23.
But these were denied by his political party, the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).And this time, just for laughs, he left behind oil painter Peter Brown, commissioned to capture the scenes he would miss. I spoke to Pete "The Street" Brown for my series. "The whole reason I was employed was because Banksy was questioning what was the art about," Pete explained. "Is it about the graffiti? Or is it about the reaction afterwards, and what happens to it?"
As luck would have it, Pete was captured on video just as Banksy's team were putting the finishing touches to Valentine's Day Mascara – a video that The Banksy Story managed to obtain. In it we can see that one of Banksy's team let a local kid play with their drone."They're in the process of putting a large piece on a wall and yet they're taking the time to teach a kid how to fly a drone," says Steph Warren, who used to work with Banksy and who appeared in my first series - about the artist's rise and rise. "Very sweet!"
Alongside Sam, I've been following the story of Gert and Gary. They, like Sam, did not want me to use their last name. A 30ft-high seagull appeared one morning on the wall of their buy-to-let in Lowestoft in Suffolk. The bird needed to be massive for Banksy's ambitious visual gag to work. The artist had shoved large yellow insulation strips into a skip that now looked like a fast-food container that the seagull divebombed to steal chips.Banksy had chosen his wall well. Visitors arriving by train were treated to this witty meditation on the scourge of Britain's seaside towns, equal parts warning and celebration. The Lowestoft Seagull was part of Banksy's Great British Staycation, his post-Covid lockdown campaign to cheer us all up at the prospect of a summer holiday spent in the UK.