DR Congo president urges 'sacred unity' government

Kinshasa, DR Congo. DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi said Monday he wants to turn the page on the "humiliation" he suffered as a coalition partner with his rival and predecessor Joseph Kabila.

Delivering his annual state of the nation address to parliament a week after he scrapped the shaky alliance, Tshisekedi said the country needs a "government of sacred unity... that will work in harmony with the head of state".

The breakup led to brawls in the chamber between supporters of the two rivals, sparking international alarm and fears of new unrest in a country with a long history of volatility and conflict.

Kabila's supporters in the Common Front for the Congo (FCC), which holds more than 300 of the 500 seats in the National Assembly, have accused Tshisekedi of breaching the constitution.

On Monday the president said, to hearty applause: "Despite the efforts I have already made, the sacrifices I have countenanced and the humiliations I have tolerated, that was not enough for this coalition to function harmoniously."

Under the pact, Kabila was prime minister and the FCC was awarded two-thirds of some 65 ministerial portfolios.

The president scored a major victory last week when the pro-Kabila speaker of the National Assembly was voted out by 281 of the 500 MPs.

Tshisekedi hailed what he called an "exemplary resolution" to the political crisis.

Tshisekedi took over from Kabila in January 2019, in the DR Congo's first peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Both Tshisekedi and the legislature were chosen in much-delayed elections in December 2018 that while peaceful were tarred by accusations of fraud.

The governing coalition emerged from a pact, still unpublished, between Tshisekedi and Kabila at the handover in January 2019.

Kabila, who had ruled the vast central African country for 18 years, retains considerable clout through political allies and officers he appointed to the armed forces, and is also a senator for life.

In October, Tshisekedi revealed there had been discord over major issues with the FCC-dominated government.