Kabila honours pledge with PM appointment

President Joseph Kabila on Friday named an opposition leader as the DRC’s new Prime Minister, honouring a pledge made as part of a stalled power-sharing deal agreed in December. Bruno Tshibala, a spokesperson for the coalition of parties opposed to Kabila’s rule, will replace Samy Badibanga who has formally resigned. A report on the CapitalFM site notes that the appointment of a new premier is part of a deal brokered by the influential Catholic Church on New Year's Eve, which aimed to avoid a full-blown crisis after Kabila refused to step down when his second and final five-year term ended in December. The agreement allows Kabila to remain in office until elections in late 2017, ruling in tandem with a transitional watchdog and a new premier, to be chosen from within the opposition ranks.