The Democratic Republic of Congo Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga announced a new coalition government on Monday, eight months after President Felix Tshisekedi won the election with around 38.5 percent of the votes, reported Reuters.
“The government is finally here,” Prime Minister Ilunga told reporters before the members of the new government were announced by the president’s spokesman. “The president has signed the decree and we will begin work soon.”
As announced 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. Kabila served as the President of DRC for nearly two decades and still commands widespread support. His coalition won about 70 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament and an overwhelming majority of provincial assembly seats in December elections.
Forming the coalition had taken time as both sides had to “remove everything that could be an obstacle to the functioning of the government”, said Ilunga.
The prime minister added that the executive will have a female vice prime minister, minister for foreign affairs and minister for planning. He said around three-quarters of members were serving in government for the first time and that is an important innovation.
Willy Samsoni, a former mines minister in the local government of Haut Katanga province, has been named as the Mining Minister, while Democratic Republic of Congo’s former director-general of taxes Sele Yalaghuli has been allotted the finance minister portfolio. Ngoy Mukena, a close ally of former president Joseph Kabila, has been named Defence Minister.
In related news, flash floods have killed 62 people in Sudan. Heavy rains since early July have affected almost 200,000 people across 15 states.
According to the United Nations, more than 37,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged while more flash floods are expected.
