Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila on Sunday announced the formation of a new government in a shake-up apparently aimed at broadening his political base ahead of a possible constitutional showdown.
The vast central African country has secured some democratic gains in the last decade after more than 30 years of autocratic rule, but it is weighed down by civil conflict centered on its eastern borders.
Kabila came to power in 2001 following the assassination of his father. Western governments have warned him against any attempt to change the constitution before elections in 2016 to stay in office beyond the end of his two-term mandate.
The government, announced on state television, brings members of two opposition parties to key posts, including Thomas Luhaka, the secretary-general of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo. He will serve as one of three vice prime ministers.
Kabila elevated to the same role ally Evariste Boshab, secretary-general of his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy. Boshab has pushed for a constitutional amendment to allow Kabila to run for a third term.
Some analysts say the government could weaken an already fractured opposition, which has been led for decades by Etienne Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress.
“The big question is whether this is part of a larger strategy of delaying elections,” said Jason Stearns, a Congo analyst at the Rift Valley Institute. “Everyone who is in this new government has a vested interest in staying in government as long as possible.”
Congolese Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo, who has led the outgoing government since April 2012, retains his post.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
RSS