Laurent Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2001. The shooter was widely identified as Rashidi Mizele, also known in some accounts as Rashidi Kasereka, an 18-year-old member of Kabila's security detail.
The attack took place on January 16, 2001, at the Palais de Marbre, Kabila's official residence in Kinshasa. According to the commonly reported account, the bodyguard approached Kabila while he was speaking with an adviser, drew a revolver, and shot him several times. Other guards then shot the assassin as he tried to escape. Kabila was flown to Zimbabwe for treatment and was declared dead on January 18.
The broader assassination remains politically controversial. Authorities arrested and prosecuted numerous alleged conspirators, but competing accounts questioned who ordered the killing and whether the officially identified shooter acted alone. That uncertainty explains why the quiz's broad answer, “his bodyguard,” is more reliable than assigning responsibility to a larger alleged plot. Kabila was succeeded as president by his son, Joseph Kabila.