Zambian midfielder Nathan Sinkala opened the scoring for Mazembe on 56 minutes after recovering a ball in the box that compatriot Rainford Kalaba got past the last defender. Colins Ekechi Osunwa leveled the score for Al Merreikh on 75 minutes.

Mazembe received a hostile reception (photos) from Al Merreikh’s fans as they arrived in Sudan for the match. The team and its fans were advised by the police to remain in their hotel for their own security.

Mazembe have now reached the quarterfinals of the premier continental football competition for the sixth consecutive time, winning the previous two out of three after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) disqualified the then reigning champions last year for allegedly fielding an illegible player.

Last year’s controversial CAF’s decision, which came in the wake of Mazembe making history by becoming the first team from outside Europe or South America to reach the final of the FIFA Club World Cup, prevented them from winning a record third consecutive Champions League title. The team vowed to appeal the decision to FIFA, the world football governing body.

The DR Congo football powerhouse announced in April that FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber had ruled in their favor on their appeal and said they would seek rehabilitation.

Dans un communiqué de presse publié dimanche, le Chef d’état-major des FARDC, le général Didier Etumba, a indiqué que les opérations militaires contre ces soldats « indisciplines » sont suspendues et appelle les commandants de leurs unités à créer de conditions favorables pour ceux qui veulent rejoindre l’armée régulière.

« Les FARDC ont suspendu depuis la nuit du 04 au 05 mai les opérations de neutralisation de ces indisciplinés », a indiqué le général Etumba.

« Dans le secteur opérationnel de Masisi et une partie de Rutshuru où ces indisciplinés avaient concentré leurs attaques aux FARDC, la situation a été maîtrisée et elle est à ce jour sous contrôle de nos forces armées », a-t-il affirmé.

Ces soldats mutins, anciens rebelles du CNDP intégrés dans l’armée en 2009 après un accord de paix, sont en débandade, selon les résidents de ces localités.

Le général Ntaganda est sous mandat d’arrêt de la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) depuis 2006. Il est accusé d’avoir conscrit des enfants soldats entre 2002 et 2003 en tant que commandant dans la milice que dirigeait Thomas Lubanga dans la région de l’Ituri, en Province Orientale.

Le gouverneur du Nord-Kivu, Julien Paluku, a indiqué mardi que le général Ntaganda est désormais recherché par les autorités congolaises pour indiscipline.

DR Congo’s Army Chief of Staff, General Didier Etumba, said in a press release on Sunday that military operations against the “undisciplined” soldiers have been suspended and asked the commanders of their units to create favorable conditions for those who want to rejoin the regular army.

“Since the night of May 4 to 5, the FARDC have suspended the operations aimed at neutralizing these undisciplined soldiers,” General Etumba said.

“The situation is now under the control of our armed forces in the operational area of Masisi and Rutshuru, where some of these mutinous soldiers had concentrated their attacks on the FARDC,” he said.

According to the residents of these areas, the mutinous soldiers are in disarray. The former CNDP rebels were integrated into the army in 2009 under a peace agreement.

General Ntaganda was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2006. He is accused of using child soldiers between 2002 and 2003 as a commander in the FPLC militia led by Thomas Lubanga in the Ituri region, in northeastern DR Congo.

The governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, said on Tuesday that General Ntaganda is now wanted by the Congolese authorities for indiscipline.

General Ntaganda’s whereabouts remain unclear, with some reports saying he may have joined forces with the Rwandan rebels of the FDLR based in eastern Congo.

The new cabinet will have thirty six members, including two deputy prime ministers, twenty five ministers, one minister-delegate and eight deputy ministers.

Daniel Mukoko Samba, an economics professor and former deputy chief of staff of outgoing Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito, was named Minister of the Budget with the rank of deputy prime minister. The new defense minister, Alexander Lubal Tamu, will also have the rank of deputy prime minister.

Matata Ponyo, who was the finance minister in the previous government, will keep overseeing the ministry with the help of Patrice Kitebi as a minister-delegate.

Six members of the previous government kept their posts or were reassigned: Lambert Mende (Media), Martin Kabwelulu (Mines), Raymond Tshibanda, (Foreign Affairs, International and Regional Cooperation), Fridolin Kasweshi (Planning) and Justin Kalumba (Transport).

Several departments were merged including the ministries of Sports and Culture, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Industry and Small Businesses, Infrastructure and Housing, Media and Parliamentary Relations and Citizenship.

Women occupy five positions.  Wivine Mumba Matipa was named Minister of Justice and Human Rights and Genevieve Inagosi Minister of Gender, Family and Children.

Few heavyweights of Congolese politics are in the new cabinet which is composed mostly of technocrats.

“The most important thing is efficiency, work, integrity, morality,” Mr. Matata said on Friday speaking about the criteria for inclusion in his government.

He replaces Adolphe Muzito, who resigned on March 6 in a procedural move to allow President Kabila to name a new government after the Nov. 28 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mr. Ponyo became finance minister in February 2010.  He had previously worked as an associate professor of Economics at the University of Kinshasa. He has published several articles on hyperinflation, government deficits and the role of monetary institutions.

Known as a technocrat, he oversaw a 7 percent economic growth in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010 and a $12.3 billion debt cancellation. The World Bank said last week it expects the same growth rate in DR Congo for the next two years.

Mr. Ponyo is a member of President Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD). The prime minister’s post has been held by the PALU party since 2007, an ally of the PPRD.

Following the controversy surrounding the Nov. 28 elections, there had been speculation that President Kabila might include members of the opposition in the new government.

Former Defense Minister Charles Mwando Simba was tasked by President Kabila to hold talks with political parties in March. After the talks, he rejected the idea that the prime minister’s post itself might be given to the opposition.

Mr. Ponyo, 47, survived the Feb. 12 plane crash that killed President Kabila’s senior advisor Katumba Mwanke along with four other passengers. He was hospitalized in South Africa for two weeks before resuming his functions as finance minister.

The reports claimed that President Kabila had “called for the arrest” of the former CNDP rebel leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes he is said to have committed in northeastern DR Congo between 2002 and 2003.

But an analysis of the audio from Wednesday’s event, made available by UN-backed Radio Okapi, suggests a more nuanced position that may have been misinterpreted.

Speaking in Swahili, President Kabila said “There is someone called General Bosco Ntaganda who is under an international arrest warrant. I am often asked when visiting this region: Why haven’t you transferred Bosco to the ICC yet? I have always given you the same answer. But today, I am going to give you another answer. But my position has not changed yet. With the indiscipline that has occurred here, we do not even need to arrest Bosco Ntaganda and transfer him to the ICC. We can arrest him ourselves. We have more than one hundred reasons to arrest him and put him on trial right here. I am told that the international community’s pressure will continue. Look, I do not work for the international community. We work on behalf of our population from all across Congo and North Kivu. Concretely, when it comes to the indiscipline that we came here to solve, if there is any other case, it will give us a reason to arrest any officers, starting with Bosco and all others.”

The Congolese government has come under increasing pressure to arrest General Ntaganda after the conviction on March 14 of Thomas Lubanga by the ICC. General Ntaganda was a commander in Thomas Lubanga FPLC militia during the Ituri conflict.

Congolese authorities have previously argued that arresting ex-warlord, who was integrated into the Congolese army in 2009 under a peace deal, may cause more harm than good. He is said to have instigated defections of former rebels from the army fearing an arrest.

The move seems to have misfired as the Congolese army deployed reinforcements to the region. Many of the defectors have since surrendered or been arrested while other are still being pursued.

The fate and whereabouts of General Ntaganda remain unclear. He has not been seen or spoken in public since last week.

The head of state arrived in Goma on Monday to deal with the security threat posed by the defections of former CNDP rebels integrated into the army under a peace deal.

DR Congo’s Army Chief of Staff, General Didier Etumba, said after the meeting that the mutinous soldiers will be dealt with according to military justice.

Soldiers must behave as citizens who respect the Congolese nation, General Etumba said. He added that those who do not comply with military regulations will be sanctioned individually according to their responsibilities in the mutiny even if they surrender.

Many of the defectors have begun surrendering as the Congolese army deployed reinforcements to the region after the defections began last week. Radio Okapi reported that 80 defectors surrendered with their commanders on Monday.

The fate and whereabouts of General Bosco Ntaganda remain unclear. The former CNDP rebel leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is said to have instigated the rebellion fearing an arrest amid increasing calls for Congolese authorities to hand him over to the ICC.

General Etumba, who precedeed President Kabila in the capital of North Kivu Province, said upon his arrival that “those who do not want to submit to the republican order will be hunted down by the army,” alluding to the former CNDP rebels who left their units in North and South Kivu provinces last week.

“There are some undisciplined soldiers that must be hunted down and they are being hunted in the most radical way. This is not about demands. Someone who is undisciplined and does not want to submit to the Constitution of the Republic, the laws of the Republic, someone who does not follow the instructions of the President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Someone who refuses to be patriotic cannot serve under the flag. And when this happens, when they take up arms, well, they must be hunted and neutralized and those who have legal problems will have to answer for them.”

The defections began after Congolese authorities came under heavy pressure from the international community requesting the transfer of Bosco Ntaganda to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Former CNDP rebels began deserting their units, taking ammunitions and other military equipment with them.

General Ntaganda, a former CNDP rebel leader integrated in the army in 2009 under a peace deal, is wanted by the ICC for war crimes committed in 2002 and 2003 in the Ituri region, in north-eastern DR Congo. He is accused of conscripting children under the age of 15 into his militia.

After Thomas Lubanga was convicted by the ICC on March 14 for using child soldiers, ICC prosecutor José Luis Moreno Ocampo said he will press Congolese authorities to arrest Ntaganda.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders is reported to have urged President Kabila to arrest Ntaganda during a visit to Kinshasa two weeks ago.

Congolese authorities have so far resisted arresting Ntaganda, saying his arrest may cause more harm than good.

Ntaganda, a former member of the Rwandan army, replaced warlord Laurent Nkunda, also a former member of the Rwandan army, as the leader of the CNDP rebels who wreaked havoc in eastern Congo for years.

The United Nations accused Rwanda in 2008 of supporting the CNDP rebels. Congolese and Rwandan authorities struck a deal in 2009 that led to the arrest of Nkunda by the Rwandan army and subsequent joint military operations with the Congolese army against Rwandan FDLR rebels based in eastern Congo.

In a statement released to the press, interim Information Minister and government spokesman Muyej Mangeze said that “undisciplined troops had erected barricades unauthorized by the military hierarchy, thereby disrupting public order and the tranquility of the population in some places.”

The government said it was following the situation “very closely” and called on those responsible to “refrain from acts that could expose them to the rigors of justice, both nationally and internationally.”

Although not named directly in the statement, the troops are said to be under the command of General Bosco Ntaganda, a former CNDP rebel leader who was integrated in the Congolese Armed Forces as part of a peace deal.

A former member of the Rwandan army, Bosco Ntaganda became the commander of the CNDP rebel group after Congolese and Rwandan authorities struck a deal that led to the arrest of warlord Laurent Nkunda in 2009. Rwanda is known to have supported the CNDP in its proxy fight against the Rwandan FDLR rebels based in eastern Congo.

Bosco Ntaganda, also known as “The Terminator”, was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2006. The ICC said there were reasonable grounds to believe he used child soliders in the Ituri conflict, in north-eastern DR Congo, as a commander in the FPLC milita group between 2002 and 2003.

The troop movements are believed to be a show of force by General Ntaganda amid renewed calls for his arrest after his former boss in the FPLC, Thomas Lubanga, was convicted by the ICC on March 14. Former CNDP rebels integrated in the Congolese army are said to have left their units, taking ammunition and other military equipments with them.

Accused of supporting impunity, the Congolese government has argued that it has cooperated with the ICC by arresting and sending Thomas Lubanga, Mathieu Ngudjolo and Germain Katanga to the court. It has so far resisted arresting Bosco Ntaganda, saying his arrest may cause more harm than good.

President Joseph Kabila said during a news conference last October that in Ntaganda’s case, peace trumpets all other considerations.

President Kabila accepted Mr. Muzito’s resignation and thanked him for his collaboration during his tenure as the head of government, a statement from the Office of the President said, adding that Deputy Prime Minister Louis Koyagialo will act as the interim prime minister until a new government is formed.

Mr. Muzito said he was grateful to President Kabila for his leadership and support during his tenure, which allowed his government and himself to accomplish the tasks assigned to them “under difficult conditions.”

“We went a little further. We obtained the cancellation of DR Congo’s debt from $14 billion to $4 billion,” Mr. Muzito said, arguing that the debt reduction was due to the compliance of his government to its commitments to multilateral partners. “Now, we can mobilize these resources to finance the country’s development.”

Referring to former president Mobutu’s regime, which ruled the country for 40 years, he said that it had destroyed the country by lowering its wealth and dividing it by two.

“Since 2000, the new government has increased the country’s wealth from $5 billion to $22 billion. Those are statistics from international financial institutions. So, we more or less increased the wealth of the country by four in ten years. We believe we can, as the Presidential Majority and under the leadership of President Joseph Kabila, increase it from 4.5 billion in 2000 to $ 40 billion in 2016,” he argued.

However, he acknowledged that for the Congolese people to feel the effects of these accomplishments, it will take time to restore the economy and restore social infrastructures such as hospitals and schools.