DRC’s and Liberia’s new presidents sworn in, promising to improve economy, security

The newly elected presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi and of Liberia, Joseph Boakai, have been sworn in, with both promising to improve living conditions and security in their respective countries.
The DRC’s President Tshisekedi has been sworn in following a landslide victory in the highly contested elections in December that has secured him a second five-year term. “I am taking back the baton of command that you entrusted to me. We want a more united, stronger and prosperous Congo,” the 60-year-old leader said during an inauguration ceremony in the capital Kinshasa. “I am aware of your expectations,” Tshisekedi declared, referring specifically to unemployment, youth, women’s rights and national cohesion that has long been challenged amid tensions simmering in the nation’s volatile eastern provinces. Tshisekedi was first sworn in as president in January 2019, promising to improve living conditions in a vast country that boasts mineral riches but has a largely impoverished population of 100 million and put an end to almost three decades of bloodshed in the east.
Meanwhile, Joseph Boakai has been sworn in as Liberia’s new president for a six-year term on Monday (22 January) after narrowly defeating the former football star George Weah in November’s run-off poll with 50.64% of the votes to 49.36%. The 79-year-old president has promised to tackle poverty and corruption that flourished under his predecessor, George Weah. Having 40 years of political experience already behind him, Boakai was vice-president from 2006 to 2018 under Liberia’s first female president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, before being beaten by Weah in the 2017 election. November’s poll in the West African country were hailed as peaceful in a region that has seen a succession of military coups in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Gabon.