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Vol 59 No 16

Published 10th August 2018


Congo-Kinshasa

Kabila names his dauphin

The President finally named a successor at the eleventh hour and ended the third-term controversy. Storms still lie ahead

The drama over who will be allowed to run in the presidential elections due in December has dragged the political system to the brink as growing armed conflict increase instability and fear. But on 8 August President Joseph Kabila approved his former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary as his chosen successor. A regime hardliner and securocrat from the eastern province of Maniema, Shadary is expected to maintain a tight grip on the security apparatus and protect Kabila's financial and other interests if he wins. He was placed under sanctions by the European Union in 2017 for his role in brutally supressing street protests. The secretary general of Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, Shadary may be intended to keep the presidential seat warm for Kabila, much in the way that Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped down as president to avoid breaching a two-term limit, before taking the job again after a period away.

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