Kinshasa, June 12th, 2025 (CPA) – ‘Let arms give way to toga’, an adage dear to the Romans, is expressed in the Democratic Republic of Congo by a clear desire to see rhetoric give way to concrete action, as demonstrated by the government led by Judith Suminwa, the first woman to be appointed Prime Minister, who has imposed the paradigm of results, despite the war and the immensity of the task. Sworn in on June 12th, 2024, the Suminwa government is now, on Thursday, June 12th, 2025, completing a year of concrete action, far removed from sterile political rhetoric and the laziness of air-conditioned offices. The stability of the macro-economic framework, particularly in terms of exchange rates, inflation and the price of fuel at the pump, as well as the satisfaction associated with the disbursement of several million US dollars by the Bretton Woods institutions, are clear signals that the past 365 days have brought satisfactory results.
Prime Minister Judith Suminwa
On the economic front, the Suminwa government has brought the country’s macro-economic framework under control, with prospects for the consolidation of single-digit inflation, in contrast to previous years when the inflation rate was over 20%.
As for the ‘growth rate’ indicator, the Suminwa government is keeping the country at the head of the pack with a rate of over 6%, almost double the African average. For the first time in the country’s history, the share of extractive resources has not exceeded services, raising the prospect of the economy beginning to diversify. The exchange rate, for its part, has been virtually stuck at around 2,850 Congolese francs to the US dollar for several months. Still with the aim of easing the burden on households, substantial cuts have been made to the components of the price of fuel at the pump. The pressure on the public purse has eased, to the extent that for the rare time in the DRC’s economic history, the price of a liter of fuel has fallen, to the great satisfaction of the Congolese people.
The diplomacy of results
This standard of governance has met with a favorable response from the Bretton Woods institutions, which are very vigilant about the parameters of good governance. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has validated the second review of the new program with the DRC. In response, the World Bank, edified by the IMF’s satisfaction, gave its favorable opinion for 1.49 billion in funding for projects in the DRC. In purely diplomatic terms, the first results came from Geneva, where the government delegation was able to bring back the resolution of the Human Rights Council, which decided to investigate and crystallize the crimes committed by Rwandan soldiers in the DRC. The purpose of this documentation is to bring them before national and international justice at the appropriate time.
Then came Security Council Resolution 2773 calling on Rwanda to withdraw its troops from DRC territory. These diplomatic advances are proof that the DRC’s narrative is understood by the international community. The latest demonstration of this aggressive diplomacy is the extension of Equatorial Guinea’s presidency of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to Rwanda’s detriment.
This snub prompted Kigali to leave this sub-regional grouping, under pressure from the DRC.ACP/