Growing chance of cabinet reshuffle ahead of talks

Foreign actors are reportedly actively pressuring the Congolese rebels to accept a proposal that Kabila’s position as head of state in a future transition government would not be negotiable at upcoming inter-Congolese negotiations, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in its latest quarterly report on the DRC. It said the proposal, first raised by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, appeared to have strengthened Kabila’s security regarding his own position. “If Mr Kabila were to get such a guarantee, he would probably be much more willing to compromise on other aspects of the peace deal, such as where the UN troops are to be deployed,” the report stated. It was conceivable that the rebels and the internal opposition may accept Kabila as president of a transitional government if he could provide satisfactory guarantees that he would submit himself to the outcome of a future democratic national election, the report added.

Meanwhile, a strong lobby against the proposal had emerged within Kabila’s own government, and there was a growing chance that he would reorganise his cabinet before the start of the inter-Congolese negotiations called for in the Lusaka ceasefire agreement, the EIU said.