Former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has been appointed as the country’s defence minister in a sweeping government reshuffle.
President Felix Tshisekedi has appointed Bemba who was detained for over 10 years for war crimes as part of an overhaul of the 57 members of government, which the president’s spokesperson said was “urgent and necessary”, in an announcement on Congo’s national television late on Thursday. No further details were given.
President Tshisekedi appointed Vital Kamerhe, his former chief of staff who was released from prison in Dec. 2021 following an embezzlement conviction, as economy minister while Nicolas Kazadi continued as finance minister.
The reshuffle is more extensive than predicted by observers. One notable commentary has been from the Director of the Congo Research Group and a Professor at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, Jason Stearns, who stressed that the exercise was “a deeply political shuffle,”
“Key positions are given to senior politicians who have large constituencies to please but little expertise in their new ministries. Kamerhe is not an economist. Bemba was a rebel but has little formal military training,” he said.
Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to hold in Congo DR on December 20, 2023, kicking off a year of complex preparations in the vast Central African country, large parts of which have been overrun by armed groups.