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DR Congo: President Kabila appointed new Chief of the Armed forces

President Joseph Kabila appointed Monday General Didier Etumba as chief of the Congolese armed forces. He replaces General Dieudonné Kayembe. The appointment comes in a context of war in eastern DRC, triggered since the end of August by the CNDP of General Laurent Nkunda.

In a presidential order read Monday on national TV (RTNC), officer Didier Etumba was elevate to the rank of lieutenant general and the chief of Staff by the Head of State, and this, "given the necessity and urgency".

General Etumba Didier, 53 years, had already served the nation in the former Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ), a native from Equateur Province (northwest). Until his appointment as chief of Armed forces, he was headed the naval force.

Since January 2008, under the Amani program, he is co-author of various plans adopted by the international community, the government and all armed groups in North and South Kivu.

This change comes in a particular context of war in eastern DRC, a war which for several months has made nearly 250,000 displaced and hundreds of deaths.

Despite cease-fire agreements, on ground, fighting continues between the regular army and Laurent Nkunda’s rebels.

The UN mission in DRC (MONUC) has denounced these attacks of the CNDP as "violations of the cease-fire" while the same day the rebels reiterated in front of the UN special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, respect the cease-fire it declared last October 29.

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