President Joseph Kabila’s party has signed a deal with the opposition party that will end protests ad ensure a peaceful transition of power.
The deal stipulates that Kabila must step down in 2017 and an election be held before the end of the year to elect a new President.
Kabila had been under immense pressure from mediators from the Catholic Church for his party to sign the deal with the opposition.
The Church believes that the agreement will avert a situation where the country slides into anarchy and possibly another civil war over Kabila’s decision not to step down even after his mandate expired over a week ago.
Since independence in 1960, DR Congo had not experienced any peaceful transition of power.
Recall that Congo had a very rough transition in the late 90s and fought a civil war from 1996 to 2003 which left millions dead.
If the two parties follow the terms of this new deal, it would be the country’s first peace transition of power since they attained independence from Belgium.
“Today, we are happy to head up a political compromise,” said Marcel Utembi, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference.
Representatives of Kabila’s party present at the signing of the deal include: Mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu and Interior Minister Emmanuel Shadary.
In spite of the deal, there are still major setbacks as the Country’s electoral commission says elections may not be possible before 2018.
This is even as many people are doubtful that Kabila actually intends to step down
Reuters reports that several of his supporters have floated the idea of changing the constitution to enable him to run for another term, as other African leaders have done.
But any attempt to scuttle the deal would worsen instability in the country as many have been killed in protests over the last four months.
Meanwhile, in a year-end address, Kabila said “Now that all pretexts for various plots against the republic have been removed, I call everyone to … to create conditions of true peace and stability throughout the country.”
Source: NAN
