Kinshasa, June 5th, 2025 (CPA).- The opponent Martin Fayulu has proposed the creation of a ‘camp for the homeland’ around President Tshisekedi, following his meeting on Thursday with the Head of State at the Nation Palace in the municipality of Gombe (north of Kinshasa) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Congolese Presidency. ‘The country is going through a very difficult period. We are under attack from all sides. We need national cohesion. I have come to tell him that we don’t have 36 solutions. We must create a camp of the homeland,’ has indicated Martin Fayulu after the nearly two-hour meeting, which occurs 72 hours after having publicly requested a meeting with the President of the Republic.
Martin Fayulu has also said having urged the President of the Republic to initiate a social dialogue and to meet with religious leaders, particularly those from the National Episcopal Conference have a proposal of a social pact. ‘With all our crises that we have: social crisis, political crisis and security crisis, the solution is a social dialogue. I have asked him to do everything possible to meet with the bishops of Cenco and the pastors of ECC in order to discuss together this social pact that they are proposing.
On this subject, President Tshisekedi has promised to give his answer quickly,’ he has emphasised. The president of the Engagement for Citizenship and Development (Ecide) party, leader of the Lamuka platform and former candidate in the 2023 presidential election, who has arrived at the Head of State’s official offices, visibly relaxed and all smiles, was accompanied by his closest associates, including Devos Kitoko, Prince Epenge, Alex Dende, known as ‘Lexxus Legal’, and Ms Chantal Moboni. He has exchanged warm embraces with the President of the Republic, Felix Tshisekedi.
Embrace between Felix Tshisekedi and Martin Fayulu
‘I am happy to see you and we will exchange openly,’ the Head of State has at the outset, welcoming him with an embrace. Responding to a question about possible participation in institutions, Martin Fayulu has explained that this point has not been discussed.
The security crisis in the east on the agenda
The opponent Fayulu surrounded by his colleagues
Since the beginning of the security crisis in the eastern part of the country, specifically in the Kivu provinces occupied by the Rwandan army and its auxiliaries, Martin Fayulu has always maintained a posture opposed to this aggression, which continues to plague the nation.
He is cited among the opponents who have never opted for armed opposition, unlike those who have succumbed to the AFC/M23’s calls to join the rebellion, becoming Paul Kagame’s puppets. While some Congolese opponents and former presidential candidates had taken part in the latest political consultations convened by the Congolese president for the formation of a government of national unity, Martin Fayulu and his political party Ecide had boycotted Felix Tshisekedi’s call.
The official request made by the president of Ecide to meet with Felix Tshisekedi, it should be remembered, was aimed at finding solutions to the security crisis, particularly in the eastern part of the country. After the 2018 and 2023 elections, Martin Fayulu has entered into opposition against Felix Tshisekedi. With this meeting, the two leaders of Congolese politics, former collaborators in the political platform ‘Rassop’, are now joining forces against the political-military opposition currently led by Kabila, who has at his side Corneille Nangaa and many other Congolese who have been complicit in Rwanda’s aggression against the country.
The meeting between Felix Tshisekedi and Martin Fayulu has been announced a few minutes earlier by Tina Salama, spokesperson for the President of the Republic, who has written on her X account: « As announced, the President of the Republic will receive Mr Martin Fayulu at the Nation Palace on Thursday June 5th, 2025. This meeting follows a request from the leader of the Ecide political party and is taking place in a friendly atmosphere with a view to national cohesion, » she has written.