Outgoing president Joseph Kabila sits during the inauguration ceremony for Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thursday Jan. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s Senate has voted overwhelmingly to lift former President Joseph Kabila's parliamentary immunity, paving the way for prosecution over his alleged support for a rebel insurgency in the country’s east.

Earlier this month, the attorney general of Congo’s army asked the Senate to revoke the lifetime immunity from prosecution that Kabila enjoyed because of his honorific title as senator for life.

“The Senate authorizes the prosecution and lifting of Joseph Kabila’s immunity," Senate Speaker Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde said Thursday after the vote.

Justice Minister Constant Mutamba said the former president is accused of “treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity and participation in an insurrectional movement” in the country’s east.

The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January when the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu, which they took in February.

On Friday, Human Rights Watch said a Congolese army-backed militia known as the “Wazalendo” committed beatings, killings and extortion against civilians in the war-torn country’s east. Earlier this month, Congo accused M23 of murdering dozens, kidnapping thousands more and committing rape, torture and looting.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi last year alleged Kabila was supporting the rebels and “preparing an insurrection” in eastern Congo with them, a claim Kabila denies.

On Friday, Kabila said the Congolese government had made “arbitrary decisions” following what he called a “street rumor” about his “alleged presence in Goma” in his first public speech since leaving power.

“Better than anyone, you know that, for me, Congo is the absolute priority; that its sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable; that my commitment to democracy, national cohesion, peace and stability is not an empty slogan; and that respect for the Constitution and the laws of the country, as well as for keeping one’s word, is sacred,” Kabila said.

He accused Tshisekedi of turning Congo into a “dictatorship” and said the parliament has become the “rubber stamp for the will of a single person.”

Kabila led Congo from 2001 to 2019, taking office at the age of 29 and extending his mandate by delaying elections for two years after his term ended in 2016. His father, former President Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in 2001.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts.

Despite Congo’s army and M23 having agreed to work toward a truce earlier this month, fighting continues in the eastern province of South-Kivu.

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Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Justin Kabumba in Goma, Congo contributed to this report.

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