On Monday, Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi appointed the country's first-ever female prime minister, naming planning minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka to the role.
Economist Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde steps down as prime minister after Tshisekedi wins the presidential election on December 20.
Tshisekedi Names Tuluka as First Woman PM
Tshisekedi's inauguration for a second term in January sparked a long quest for a majority coalition in the National Assembly, a key step before a prime minister could be chosen and a government could be formed.
"I am aware of the great responsibility. We will work for peace and the development of the country," Suminwa said on national television on Monday.
In a country long torn by violence and instability, Tshisekedi emerged victorious with 73.47% of the vote in December.
The opposition branded the ballot a fraud.
Due to logical snarls, voting was officially extended by one day, and in some isolated places, polls remained open for days.
Over 90% of the seats in parliament were won by Tshisekedi's party, which made it easy for him to pass laws.
The new prime minister will have to advance the president's stated goals of youth, women, and national cohesion for the nation of about 100 million people.
When Tshisekedi took office as president in 2019, he committed to eliminating 25 years of violence in the east and improving living circumstances in the DR Congo, a country rich in minerals but with a largely impoverished population.
Although the president failed to keep those promises, he used his accomplishments, such as providing free primary medication, to campaign for a second term and requesting additional funding to "consolidate" the progress.
According to the United Nations, the DR Congo, one of the world's poorest countries, has experienced internal displacement of about seven million people due to the conflict.
The security situation has worsened in North Kivu province, where a Rwanda-backed rebel group, M23, has taken control of large areas of land over the past two years.
Humanitarian Catastrophe in DR Congo's Ituri Province
The Norwegian Refugee Council claims that it speaks for thousands of other people in the province who are currently struggling with what relief organizations call the "humanitarian catastrophe" that has been overlooked in the Congo.
According to data from the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Ituri province currently has the second-largest population of internally displaced people and returnees in any province in the DR Congo.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported in December 2023 that following attacks by armed groups in the Mahagi, Djugu, Mambasa, and Aru region, around 97,000 newly displaced individuals were recorded in alerts.
However, the international community frequently ignores the violence in nearby Ituri while focusing on the rapidly deteriorating circumstances in and around Goma in the North Kivu Province.
As a result of ongoing attacks that have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes since February 2024, humanitarian organizations operating in the province claim that the disintegration of social cohesion between communities has intensified due to growing inter-communal violence.
