Showing posts with label congo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label congo. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

DR Congo Finance Minister Augustin Ponyo to be new PM

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, has appointed Finance Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo as his new prime minister.
Mr Matata is a respected financial expert credited with stabilising the country's economy.
The appointment ends five months of deadlock after polls criticised for widespread irregularities.
The country has been run by a temporary administration after Mr Kabila and his party was returned to power.
The opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi disputed the election results and at first declared himself president.
Mr Matata's first job will be to draw up a budget for the government. Since becoming finance minister in 2010 he has attracted praise from the International Monetary Fund for stabilising the country's economy.
He ran a $12bn debt reduction agreement with international creditors, which was seen as the main achievement of President Kabila's first term in office.
But the introduction of a value-added tax earlier this year created a spike in inflation that sparked criticism inside the country.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Congo's 'Terminator': Kabila calls for Ntaganda arrest

President Joseph Kabila has said ex-rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, must be arrested.
But Gen Ntaganda must be tried in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the president says.
Mr Kabila had previously refused to call for the arrest of the man known locally as "The Terminator".
The ICC indicted him five years ago, for allegedly recruiting child soldiers during DR Congo's bloody five-year war.
'Judged in Goma'
President Kabila held emergency meetings with top army officials in the east of the country, following the defections earlier this month of hundreds of Congolese troops.
The soldiers, loyal to Gen Ntaganda, were integrated into the national army in 2009. However, people in and around the town of Goma, where the troops are based, blame them for persistent unrest - including looting and rape - since the formal end of the war in 2003.

Racists will not break me, insists Congo's Chris Samba

Congo-Brazzaville defender Chris Samba insists he will not be driven from Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala after suffering racist abuse.
A banana was thrown at the 28-year-old during his side's 1-0 defeat at Lokomotiv Moscow last month.
Samba, who joined Anzhi from English Premier League side Blackburn in February, said: "I will never let the small community of racists break me.
"I'm a strong character and will keep fighting for my team."
Samba added: "I am thoroughly enjoying my time in Russia and although I was of course angry at the racism incident, along with the rest of the football world, racist issues here are no different to what I have experienced in other countries."