DRC prime minister resigns

Resignation is part of agreement signed last month between government and opposition parties

By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo (AA) - The prime minister of the Democratic republic of Congo (DRC) Matata Ponyo has resigned Monday.

He met President Joseph Kabila before handing his resignation.

"I have resigned to meet the spirit and the letter of the agreement," he said in a statement, alluding to an agreement signed last month between the government and certain opposition parties on the postponement of the presidential election to 2018.

In the deal, the parties agreed that a new prime minister from the opposition should replace Ponyo.

Matata Ponyo is a former finance minister who was appointed prime minister in April 2012.

The DRC has seen several anti-Kabila demonstrations in the past few months, as the opposition parties and civil society groups call on the president to step down from power at the end of his two-term mandate in December 2016.

Between Sept. 19 and 21, at least 53 people, including seven women, two children and four police agents were killed in the capital, Kinshasa, according to a report of the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO).

Kaynak:

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