Democratic Republic of Congo named a new government today after landmark elections last year aimed at ending decades of chaos and warfare, state television reported.
After weeks of delays, a decree read out on state television named the new government of Antoine Gizenga, an opposition veteran appointed prime minister in December by President Joseph Kabila.
The government faces a huge challenge in rebuilding a country devastated by decades of kleptocracy under late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - whose son was named a minister in the new government - and then by years of war and violence.
Gizenga (81) came third in a presidential election last year and threw his weight behind the incumbent Kabila in a run-off against former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose fighters clashed with Kabila's soldiers in the capital Kinshasa twice during the tense electoral period.
Mobutu's son Francois Joseph Mobutu Nzanga, who finished fourth, was named minister of state for agriculture in the new government.
The new government kept some ministers, such as Denis Kalume who retained the interior portfolio as minister of state, and brought in figures from parties which backed Kabila through the elections.
Congo is as big as Western Europe and control of its huge reserves of copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds and many other minerals was a major factor in a 1998-2003 war that drew in six foreign armies. The war sparked a humanitarian crisis that has killed an estimated 4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease.