After twice postponing the inauguration of President-designate Joseph Kabila, Congo’s leadership said Thursday he would take the oath of office Friday and address the Central African nation for the first time.
The young Kabila was swept to power last week after his father, Laurent Kabila, was killed by his own bodyguard. The fallen president’s inner circle was quick to fill the power vacuum but has since fretted over legal details of succession in a war-divided country that has never enjoyed a peaceful power transfer.
Initially scheduled for Wednesday, the inauguration was delayed once to allow the slain Kabila’s handpicked parliament to approve his son’s ascension, and to give the Supreme Court time to craft the wording of the oath of office.
Laurent Kabila suspended the country’s constitution when he toppled Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, leaving no blueprint for a handover of power.
The selection of Joseph Kabila, an army major general believed to be in his late 20s, was met with widespread fears that a figurehead had been chosen, leaving little hope for an end to a 2 1/2-year civil war and a revival of the shattered economy.
