The Third Republic of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a unitary state with a five-level hierarchy of types of administrative division. There are nine different types of country subdivision in a new hierarchy with no new types but with two from the previous one abolished.
Direct elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo occur for the Presidency, National Assembly, and provincial assemblies. The Senate, the upper house of the legislature, is elected indirectly by members of the provincial assemblies.
Julien Paluku Kahongya is a Congolese politician. He served as the governor of the province of North Kivu from 27 January 2007 to 22 February 2019.
Moïse Katumbi Chapwe is a Congolese businessman and politician. He was Governor of Katanga Province, located in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 2007 to September 2015. He was a member of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) until September 2015. He has been described by The Economist as "probably the second most powerful man in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the president, Joseph Kabila". Jeune Afrique named him "African of the Year" in 2015.
The Republican Guard of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as the Special Presidential Security Group, is maintained by President Félix Tshisekedi. Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) military officials state that the Garde Républicaine is not the responsibility of FARDC, but the Head of State. Apart from Article 140 of the Law on the Army and Defence, no legal stipulation on the DRC's Armed Forces makes provision for the GR as a distinct unit within the national army. In February 2005, President Joseph Kabila passed a decree which appointed the GR's commanding officer and 'repealed any previous provisions contrary' to that decree. The GR is more than 10,000 strong, and formerly consisted of three brigades, the 10th, at Kinshasa, the 15th, and the 16th, at Lubumbashi. It has better working conditions and is paid regularly, but still commits numerous crimes near their bases, including against United Nations officials.
Senate elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 14 March 2019 to elect the 108 Senators. Former DRC President Joseph Kabila, who stepped down from office in January 2019 following the inauguration of the recently elected Félix Tshisekedi, has also joined the upper house of the legislature as a senator for life, for a total of 109 seats.
The March 23 Movement, often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army, is a Congolese rebel military group that is for the most part formed of ethnic Tutsi. Based in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), it operates mainly in the province of North Kivu. The M23 rebellion of 2012 to 2013 against the DRC government led to the displacement of large numbers of people. On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of a million people, but it was requested to evacuate it by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region because the DRC government had finally agreed to negotiate. In late 2012, Congolese troops, along with UN troops, retook control of Goma, and M23 announced a ceasefire and said that it wanted to resume peace talks.
Richard Muyej Mangeze Mans is a Congolese politician.
Justin Bitakwira Bihona-Hayi is a Congolese politician and a member of the National Assembly. He is the founder of the Alliance pour la République et la Conscience Nationale political party (ARCN) and a member of the Union for the Congolese Nation. He has been affiliated with several political parties, including the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) and the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD). He held various government positions, including Minister of Rural Development, Minister of Communication and Media and Minister of Relations with Parliament. As a minister, his political principles were described as nationalist, populist, opportunist, reformist, tribalist, and protectionist.
General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 30 December 2018, to determine a successor to President Joseph Kabila, as well as for the 500 seats of the National Assembly and the 715 elected seats of the 26 provincial assemblies. Félix Tshisekedi (UDPS) won with 38.6% of the vote, defeating another opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, and Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, backed by the ruling party PPRD. Fayulu alleged that the vote was rigged against him in a deal made by Tshisekedi and outgoing President Kabila, challenging the result in the DRC's Constitutional Court. Different election observers, including those from the country's Roman Catholic Church, also cast doubt on the official result. Nonetheless on 20 January the Court rejected his appeal and declared Tshisekedi as the winner. Parties supporting President Kabila won the majority of seats in the National Assembly. Félix Tshisekedi was sworn in as the 5th President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 24 January 2019, making it the first peaceful transition of power in the country since it became independent from Belgium in 1960.
The Kamwina Nsapu rebellion, also spelled Kamuina Nsapu rebellion, was an uprising that took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2016 and 2019. It was instigated by the Kamwina Nsapu militia against state security forces in the provinces of Kasaï-Central, Kasaï, Kasaï-Oriental, Lomami and Sankuru. The fighting began after the militia, led by Kamwina Nsapu, attacked security forces in August 2016.
Gubernatorial elections took place in 11 out of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 26 August 2017, with a second round held in three provinces on August 29. Elections in three other provinces were not held until 21 December 2017. The elections occurred after several governors had been dismissed. Applications of potential candidates were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission from 21 to 25 July 2017, with a period for the review of the applications from 26 to 30 July. On August 2, the list of candidates was published and the following two days were granted for any appeals. More than half of the provinces were won by candidates of the Alliance of the Presidential Majority, though some went to independent opposition candidates.
Army General Célestin Mbala Munsense is a Congolese military officer who has served as the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) since 14 July 2018. He is considered a loyalist of President Joseph Kabila and held a number of high ranking posts in the presidential and military administration prior to his appointment, replacing Army General Didier Etumba as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. Before that, he was a long time Chief of Staff to the President's office, since at least 2010, as a brigadier general. In September 2014, during Kabila's restructuring of the army, Mbala was a major general and was appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration and Logistics.
Central African Republic–Democratic Republic of the Congo relations refers to the current and historic bilateral relationship between the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The two countries are neighbours and share a border 1,747 km long. Due to the military conflicts on both sides of the border, many refugees have crossed into the other's territory. There were about 200,000 Congolese nationals in the Central African Republic as of 2014, and there were around 100,000 Central African refugees in the DRC as of 2016.
Gael Bussa Obambule is a Congolese lawyer and politician. He was elected National Deputy in the constituency of Budjala, in the province of South-Ubangi, in the 2018 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election.
General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 20 December 2023. Combined elections were held for the President, 484 of the 500 members of the National Assembly, 700 of the 716 elected members of the 26 provincial assemblies, and for the first time under the new constitution, 951 members of a scaled down number of commune (municipal) councils. On election day, the Congolese government extended voting to 21 December for polling stations that had not opened on 20 December. Agence France-Presse reported that some polling stations would open as late as 24 December.
Constant Ndima Kongba is a Congolese military officer who has served as the military governor of North Kivu since May 2021. Before this appointment, he had served in high-ranking positions in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). In the Second Congo War (1998–2003), Ndima was a commander in the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo; in this role, he was involved in Operation Effacer le tableau, a campaign that resulted in genocidal massacres.
Julie Ngungwa Mwayuma is a Congolese (DRC) politician. In 2022 she became the Governor of Tanganyika Province. The province was supported by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) until June 2022.
The Sacred Union of the Nation is the ruling parliamentary coalition within the parliament of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It comprises several parties including the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the Union for the Congolese Nation, the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, the Unified Lumumbist Party, and the Alliance of the Democratic Forces of Congo and Allies. It was formed in December 2020 by Felix Tshisekedi following a falling out between the Heading for Change coalition and Joseph Kabila's Common Front for Congo. In April 2021 the coalition was able to take control of the government after a four-month-long power struggle. As of June 2023, the coalition is made up of 391 members coming from 24 different political parties.
Democratic Republic of the Congoportal 