Optimism in DR Congo as deal reached to end political crisis

Left, A member of the Congolese civil society, Marie Madeleine Kalala, and right, Minister of Justice, Alexix Thambwe Mwamba, signing an accord in the capital Kinshasa on January 1, 2017 following months of talks to end a political crisis. PHOTOS | AFP 

By BIENVENU-MARIE BAKUMANYA

In Summary

• Under a landmark accord, the country's contested president, Joseph Kabila — who under the Constitution should have left office on December 20 — will stay in power until elections are held at the "end of 2017".

The new year in one of Africa's most troubled countries began in a burst of optimism Sunday after rival groups agreed a deal for hauling DR Congo out of a perilous political crisis.

Under a landmark accord, the country's contested president, Joseph Kabila — who under the Constitution should have left office on December 20 — will stay in power until elections are held at the "end of 2017".

During this 12-month period, a so-called National Transition Council will be set up, headed by opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, and a prime minister will be named from opposition ranks.

The deal was reached after talks launched by the Roman Catholic church amid escalating violence, claiming between 40 and 100 lives as Kabila's second and final mandate ended and he showed no signs of stepping down.

Several last-minute hitches nearly derailed an accord before the deal was announced late Saturday after a 13-hour marathon.

Archbishop Marcel Utembi, head of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, described the accord as an "inclusive political compromise."

Optimistic but cautious

Foreign observers hailed the agreement, but also cautioned of the work that lay ahead.

EU foreign affairs supremo Federica Mogherini, in a statement with Neven Mimica, the European commissioner for international cooperation, said the agreement "should open the way towards a consensual and peaceful transition."

But, they warned, "during the transition period, the institutions of state will draw their legitimacy both from their inclusiveness and their ability to implement the agreement in all its respects."

The head of the UN Mission in the Congo (Monusco), Maman Sidikou, also welcomed the deal.

But, said Sidikou, "work must continue, it is necessary to safeguard political stability by implementing every point of this new political roadmap".

Resource-rich but chronically poor, sapped by corruption and politically unstable, Democratic Republic of Congo has never witnessed a democratic transfer of power following polls since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Two decades ago, the country collapsed into the deadliest conflict in modern African history.

Its two wars in the late 1990s and early 2000s dragged in at least six African armies and left more than three million dead. Its restive east remains a battleground for rival ethnic militias.