Three ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo have left the country’s government on Wednesday to join the candidacy of prominent Congolese politician Moise Katumbi, who announced in mid-December his intention to run against the current president, Felix Tshisekedi, in the 2023 presidential elections.
In particular, the Minister of Transport, Chérubin Okende; the Minister of Planning, Christian Mwando; as well as the Deputy Minister of Health, Véronique Kilumba; have conveyed to the Congolese President their decision to leave the Executive.
«The head of state, Felix Tshisekedi, has met with five government ministers, members of the Together Party, to consult their loyalty and their commitment to his political line and his vision, (all this) in the presence of the Prime Minister (Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde),» reads a statement shared by the Presidency of the country.
«Three of them, namely Christian Mwando, Chérubin Okende and Véronique Kilumba, have resigned in order to remain consistent with their political commitment,» continues the note, disseminated on the social network Twitter.
However, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs, Christophe Lutundula; the Minister of Higher and University Education, Muhindo Nzangi Butondo and the Minister of Social Affairs, Modeste Mutinga Mutushayi, have reiterated their loyalty to the current Executive.
Moise Katumbi has kept a scrupulous silence since his return to the country in 2019, after more than three years of exile in Europe, after precisely the government of the current president overturned a conviction against him for corruption.
In an interview with Radio France Internationale and France24, Katumbi announced that he was bidding farewell to the «Sacred Union», the coalition led by the Congolese president, to present a candidacy as leader of the Together for the Republic party.
«I am a candidate because the situation in Congo is chaotic and because I have to save a people in danger,» Katumbi declared amid the diplomatic conflict between Congo and Rwanda, a precarious ceasefire between military and rebels and North Kivu, and rampant violence in other parts of the country.
About a quarter of the population, or 26.4 million people, could be in need of humanitarian aid by 2023 as the numerous crises rocking the African country deepen, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned earlier this month.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
