DR Congo’s Tshisekedi Names New PM after Power Struggle

Kinshasa, Feb 15 (AFP/APP): DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday named Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge, head of the state mining giant Gecamines, as prime minister following a prolonged tussle for power with allies of his predecessor.

Sama Lukonde, 43, whose appointment was announced in a decree read on nationwide TV, succeeds Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba, who was forced out after a coalition between supporters of Tshisekedi and former president Joseph Kabila broke down. 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.

Tshisekedi, the son of a veteran opposition leader, was declared the winner but was forced into a governing coalition with Kabila supporters who at the time wielded a huge majority in parliament. Tensions boiled over last year when Tshisekedi declared that power-sharing was blocking his agenda for reform, vowing to seek a new majority in parliament. In a series of moves, he won over many Kabila legislators, gaining the perceived support of almost 400 out of 500 members of the National Assembly — a group he has named the Sacred Union of the Nation.

The new majority enabled him to force out Ilunga as well as the pro-Kabila speakers of both houses of parliament.

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