With political tensions further escalating between the country's current president, Felix Tshisekedi, and allies of his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, Congo’s Parliament has impeached Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba. The move is aimed at purging the remaining Kabila stalwarts paving way for President Felix Tshisekedi to appoint loyalists to his government.

This development comes in the wake of the political deadlock that has rocked President Tshisekedi Administration since he broke ranks with Kabila FCC-CACH coalition.  The removal of the Prime Minister marks the latest episode in a power struggle that has beleaguered sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest nation for months, pitching Tshisekedi against loyalists to former president Joseph Kabila, who ruled the DRC for 18 years.

The vote of no-confidence against the prime minister, one of the last vestiges of Kabila’s hold on government means that President Tshisekedi has relieved himself of the remaining obstacles that had prevented him from delivering on his vision for the country. Under the Democratic Republic of Congo’s constitution, parliamentary censure means the prime minister will immediately step down.

President Tshisekedi, who has been having minority support in the National Assembly, hopes the impeachment will help him form majority and ultimately reconfigure the political space to his advantage. President Tshisekedi has been president of the mineral-rich DR Congo since he won the 2018 election. He succeeded Kabila in the country's first peaceful transition of power since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.

Despite winning the presidential vote, he was beset with the challenge of former President Joseph Kabila who remained to wield too much power forcing him to enter into a coalition with the Common Front for Congo (FCC) whose honeymoon has been truncated in time.

Observers say the coalition government between his parliamentary alliance, Heading for Change (CACH), and the Common Front for Congo (FCC), which is composed of parties and politicians loyal to ex-President Joseph Kabila, had straitjacketed his leadership. President Tshisekedi administration which had been heralded as a ray of hope for Congo to overcome her past and present doldrums has been embroiled in political bickering that threatens to plunge the country into crisis. As the current government tries to win new allies to push its agenda, it remains unclear how the country will steer clear and navigate the intricacies of this political gridlock.