Samia, Ndumbaro attend Tshisekedi’s inauguration in DRC

What you need to know:

  • Tanzania’s Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, and the Foreign Affairs deputy minister, Damas Ndumbaro, on January 24, 2019 attended the swearing-in of the DRC’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi.

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan and the Foreign Affairs deputy minister, Damas Ndumbaro, on January 24, 2019, attended the swearing-in of the DRC’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi.

The only Head of State who attended the inauguration of President -elect Felix Tshisekedi was Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta.

According to reports, the state had invited 17 other presidents including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Sierra Leone and Haïti, among others.

The invitees, however, only sent representatives to the ceremony which took place at the state's Presidential Palace in Kinshasa.

“We were invited and our country was represented by the Vice President and Foreign Affairs deputy minister,” confirmed Dr Ndumbaro in a text message.

The Vice President congratulated the new president-elect after he clinched the seat.

“Congo has written a new history as this is the first time, (since 1960), that it has conducted a democratic election and exchanged powers in peace,” said Samia Suluhu Hassan in a video which went viral on social media.

“It is my hope, they (Tshisekedi and former President Joseph Kabila) will continue working together for the development of Congolese.”