Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said over the weekend he would launch a unity government, as he faces domestic pressure over his handling of an offensive by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern provinces.
During a meeting of the ruling Sacred Union coalition on Saturday, Felix Tshisekedi told his ally to avoid internal quarrels: "We must unite," he said. "Let's stand together to face the enemy."
Presidency spokesperson Tina Salama added that Tshisekedi would form a government of national unity as soon as possible and make changes in the leadership of the coalition, without giving further details.
Since the start of the year, Congo has faced back-to-back losses in North and South Kivu provinces, fueling criticism of the authorities' military strategy.
The M23 movement has captured swathes of eastern Congo, including the key cities of Goma and Bukavu, and valuable minerals, exacerbating fears of a wider war.
Rwandan-backed M23 gains in eastern DRC spark UN warnings and regional fears
Political frictions
Meanwhile, in Kinshasa, some members of the fractious opposition are openly predicting Tshisekedi's presidency will not last.
"His management is one of the causes of the current crisis," said opposition figure Herve Diakiese, criticising the move to form a unity government.
"Tshisekedi is more concerned with saving his power, whereas we are more concerned with saving the Congo, and this can be done with or without him," he added.
Former president Joseph Kabila also criticised the bad governance of his successor on Sunday, saying he had a leading role in intensifying the conflict in the east of the country.
The unrest could not solely be blamed on the advances of the Rwanda-backed M23 armed movement or tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali, Kabila wrote in an opinion piece in South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper.
Since Tshisekedi took over in 2019 after winning the previous year's election, the situation in the DRC had deteriorated to the point at which it was "close to imploding," he added.
Listen to our podcast: The crisis in the DRC and the African Union response
Long-lasting regional tensions
Some 7,000 people have died since January in fighting in eastern DRC, the prime minister, Judith Suminwa Tuluka, told a high-level meeting of the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
At least 450,0000 people are without shelter after 90 displacement camps were destroyed, she added.
According to Ocha, around 700,000 people have fled their homes since 2023.
42,000 of them have crossed over into Burundi in the past two weeks, according to the United Nations.
The M23 says it is fighting in the Kivus to protect the rights of the DRC's Tutsi minority. Its advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict.
The group resumed fighting in 2021, two years after Tshisekedi came to power. Tshisekedi was then reelected in December 2023 for a second term.
(with newswires)
