DRC announces new government
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced a new coalition government, seven months after the inauguration of President Felix Tshisekedi.
Announced yesterday by the president’s spokesperson, the power-sharing agreement saw 23 members of the executive drawn from Tshisekedi’s Direction for Change party and the remaining 42 from former long-time president Joseph Kabila’s Common Front for Congo (FCC) coalition.
The mining portfolio went to Willy Samsoni, a former mines minister in the local government of Haut Katanga province, while DRC’s former director general of taxes Sele Yalaghuli was named finance minister.
Ngoy Mukena, a close ally of Kabila, was named defence minister.
“The government is finally here … the president has signed the decree and we will begin work soon,” Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba told reporters.
Ilukamba said the delay in forming the government was a result of both sides needing time to “remove everything that could be an obstacle” to its “functioning”.
Around three-quarters of those in the new administration were serving in government for the first time, he added, hailing this as an “important innovation”.
Tshisekedi took office in January after winning a December 30 election which observers said was marred by irregularities and opponents denounced as rigged.
The 56-year-old beat Kabila’s hand-picked candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and rival opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, among others, in the presidential ballot.— Al Jazeera
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