Felix tshisekedi
Political clashes leave one dead in DR Congo's east
The DRC is in the grip of unrest, with dozens of armed groups active in its resource-rich east, where UN peacekeepers and East African Community troops are...
The Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled to hold presidential elections on 20 December 2023, in which 25 candidates, including the incumbent, are running for the highest office in the impoverished central African nation.
Envoys of DR Congo's top opposition leaders arrived in South Africa on Monday to discuss coordinating ahead of an upcoming election in the central African country, officials said.
In 2020, the Security Council approved a plan for a phased withdrawal in the Democratic Republic of Congo set to begin in December 2024, but the country appealed to the council to start the process in December 2023, instead.
In a news conference with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in the capital Kinshasa, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi explained that the accord could take the form of a mutual-defence pact.
Blinken played down the lack of talks with Kagame, noting that he recently spoke to him by telephone, but made clear the United States was expecting action from Rwanda on the M23 rebels in the eastern DRC.
Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has witnessed fierce fighting in recent months between Congolese troops and the M23 rebel group. The clashes have triggered a diplomatic row, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of abetting the rebels, something that its far smaller neighbour denies.
Senegalese President and African Union chief Macky Sall, and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said wealthy countries responsible for most CO2 emissions should have been there.
The DRC has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the M23, a charge the small central African country always denied.
The National Censorship Commission had earlier issued a circular to media bosses banning both songs from being broadcast in the vast Central African country.
The call by the Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi came after a damning report on Tuesday that found "clear structural failures" and "individual negligence" among the UN agency's staff.
Marie Malangu Kabedi Mbuyi, 63, a veteran official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), replaces Deogratias Mutombo, who was named in 2013 by Tshisekedi's predecessor, Joseph Kabila.
In an address broadcast on public television on Monday, President Felix Tshisekedi said he had heard 'the cries of distress of our population, and felt the pain that our mothers, sisters and daughters are suffering in these provinces ravaged by barbarity'.
Although he did not go into further detail, the president's comments follow his newly-installed prime minister's trailing of a possible 'state of security emergency' for the violence-wracked region.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has vast mineral wealth and agricultural potential, and a market of some 86 million people.
The months-long crisis was seeded in the outcome of elections in December 2018 that led to the first peaceful transition of power in the Democratic Republic of Congo's history.
Presidency spokesman Giscard Kusema told AFP that Illunga "said he had drawn the consequences of the developing political situation."
The political scene in sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country has been roiled by a months-long struggle between Felix Tshisekedi and Joseph Kabila supporters.
Although Tshisekedi won the presidency in December 2018 elections, he had been governing in coalition with Kabila's camp which held on to a parliamentary majority at the same time.