The younger brother of DR Congo’s powerful ex-president Joseph Kabila was sacked Thursday as governor of an eastern province, in a move that sparked an angry response from Kabila loyalists.

Zoe Kabila was stripped of his job as governor of Tanganyika in a vote by the province’s assembly, officials said.

“The 13 deputies who took part in the plenary session voted for Governor Zoe Kabila to be removed from office,” the assembly’s rapporteur, Cyrille Kimpu, told AFP.

The move marks a further retrenchment for supporters of Kabila, who ruled the Democratic Republic of Congo for 18 years.

He left office in January 2019 after paving the way to elections that enabled the DRC’s first peaceful handover of power since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.

But Kabila’s long years in power enabled him to build a web of support in politics, business and the military, casting a shadow over his successor Felix Tshisekedi.

In a tussle with the Kabila camp, Tshisekedi this year won over a majority of MPs in the National Assembly in Kinshasa, enabling him to end a coalition government with the pro-Kabila FCC and appoint his own prime minister.

Tshisekedi also wields a majority in the Senate and provincial assemblies. The younger Kabila was the last of the 26 governors in the vast DRC not to have declared support for him.

The FCC — the Common Front for Congo (FCC) — reacted furiously to his sacking, saying democratic procedures had been flouted.

“The vote took place in Mr. Zoe Kabila’s absence,” said FCC lawmaker Dominique Bota, who said the younger Kabila had been busy on government business in Kinshasa.

Twelve FCC deputies in Tanganyika had also been prevented by the security forces from entering the hall to vote, Bota charged.

The motion against Kabila, signed by 13 pro-Tshisekedi provincial deputies, accused him of “poor governance, lack of respect for the institution of the Provincial Assembly and for the national authorities.”

Marie-Ange Mushobekwa, an FCC MP, said on Twitter that the younger Kabila was “someone who works for the good of the Nation and whose positive acts are appreciated by his public.”

‘You want to fire him and retain flatterers who achieve nothing,” she said.

Opposition parties and civil society groups in Chad said fresh protests would be held on Saturday against the junta that took power after longtime ruler Idriss Deby Itno died fighting rebels.

The Transitional Military Council (CMT) took charge on April 20, the day that Deby’s shock death was announced. It is headed by Deby’s son Mahamat, a four-star general.

Protests broke out almost immediately and have been brutally quashed, resulting in six deaths according to officials, and nine according to NGOs.

Over 600 people have been arrested.

“We are launching an urgent appeal to all civil society orgnaisations which have not engaged in the fight to immediately join the mass mobilisation,” Max Loalngar, the coordinator of the Wakit Tamma collective told a news conference on Thursday.

The elder Deby systematically banned protests during his 30-year rule.

Mahamat Idriss Deby has pledged to hold “free and democratic” elections in 18 months. He has named a transitional government that is overwhelmingly dominated by ruling party figures and stalwarts of the old regime.

Chad claims that the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), a large armed group with a rear base in Libya which mounted an offensive on April 11, is retreating after a government offensive.

Somalia said Thursday it had restored diplomatic ties with Kenya, five months after bilateral relations were suspended between the often-tense neighbours over allegations of interference.

Somalia cut ties on December 15 after Kenya hosted the leadership of Somaliland, a breakaway state not recognised by the central government in Mogadishu.

“The Federal Government of Somalia announces that in keeping with the interests of good neighbourliness, it has resumed diplomatic relations with the Republic of Kenya,” the ministry of information said in a statement.

“The two governments agree to keep friendly relations between the two countries on the basis of principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other internation affair.”

The statement thanked the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, whom it credited with playing a part in the reconciliation, and said the thaw had been welcomed by Kenya.

Nairobi said it took note of the statement and was looking forward “to further normalisation of relations by the Somali authorities.”

“The ministry of foreign affairs acknowledges the continued support that has been extended from the international community, and in particular the government of Qatar, in efforts to normalise the diplomatic relations between Somalia and Kenya,” it said in a statement.

Somalia has long bristled over what it calls Kenya’s meddling in regions over its border, while Nairobi has accused Mogadishu of using it as a scapegoat for its own political problems.

The pair have also engaged in a long-running territorial dispute over a stretch of the Indian Ocean claimed by both nations believed to hold valuable deposits of oil and gas, and have sought international arbitration over the matter.

The row over which nation controls access to the lucrative deposits escalated in early 2019 after Somalia decided to auction off oil and gas blocks in a disputed maritime area, prompting Kenya to recall its ambassador from Mogadishu in February of that year.

Somalia said Thursday it had restored diplomatic ties with Kenya, five months after bilateral relations were suspended between the often-tense neighbours over allegations of interference.

Somalia cut ties on December 15 after Kenya hosted the leadership of Somaliland, a breakaway state not recognised by the central government in Mogadishu.

“The Federal Government of Somalia announces that in keeping with the interests of good neighbourliness, it has resumed diplomatic relations with the Republic of Kenya,” the ministry of information said in a statement.

“The two governments agree to keep friendly relations between the two countries on the basis of principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other internation affair.”

The statement thanked the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, whom it credited with playing a part in the reconciliation, and said the thaw had been welcomed by Kenya.

Nairobi said it took note of the statement and was looking forward “to further normalisation of relations by the Somali authorities.”

“The ministry of foreign affairs acknowledges the continued support that has been extended from the international community, and in particular the government of Qatar, in efforts to normalise the diplomatic relations between Somalia and Kenya,” it said in a statement.

Somalia has long bristled over what it calls Kenya’s meddling in regions over its border, while Nairobi has accused Mogadishu of using it as a scapegoat for its own political problems.

The pair have also engaged in a long-running territorial dispute over a stretch of the Indian Ocean claimed by both nations believed to hold valuable deposits of oil and gas, and have sought international arbitration over the matter.

The row over which nation controls access to the lucrative deposits escalated in early 2019 after Somalia decided to auction off oil and gas blocks in a disputed maritime area, prompting Kenya to recall its ambassador from Mogadishu in February of that year.

The Republic of Congo’s government has resigned, public television announced on Thursday, a procedural move three weeks after the central African nation’s veteran leader began a new term as president.

Prime Minister Clement Mouamba submitted his government’s resignation to President Denis Sassou Nguesso on Wednesday, according to the statement read out on television.

The outgoing team will continue in its tasks until Sassou Nguesso names a new premier. He has not yet announced when he will do so.

Sassou Nguesso was sworn in for a new five-year term as president on April 16.

Mouamba, a 77-year-old former finance minister and senior executive of the six-nation Bank of Central African States (BEAC), has been prime minister since 2016.

One of the world’s longest serving leaders, Sassou Nguesso has been in power for an accumulated 36 years, first taking the helm in 1979.

Critics accuse the former paratrooper of iron-fisted rule and turning a blind eye to poverty and inequality despite Congo’s oil wealth.

He was re-elected on March 21 with 88.4 percent of the vote, in his fourth successive win since 2002.

The Malawian government has ordered thousands of long-integrated refugees to return to its sole but badly overcrowded refugee camp, in a controversial move that many have vowed to resist.

The UN estimates there are around 2,000 refugees residing outside the camp at Dzaleka, about 40 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital Lilongwe.

Many have lived there for years, setting up businesses in the town or marrying Malawians and having children with them.

But the government argues they pose a potential danger to national security by living among locals.

“We are not chasing them, and we just want them to be where they should be,” Homeland Security Minister Richard Chimwendo told correspondents.

“Those who have businesses… will have to operate from Dzaleka.”

“If they are married they must apply for permanent residence” instead of “just spreading themselves across the country.”

“We are not sending them back to their countries,” he argued.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR in Malawi said the directive was in line with the country’s encampment laws, but advised the government to reconsider.

It said, according to an official communication it received from the Homeland Security ministry, the decision was also taken in the light of “security concerns in order to protect both refugees and host communities following the volatile situation in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado area”.

But Chimwendo said the decision to relocate the refugees was not linked to the insurgency in neighbouring northern Mozambique, where jihadists have wreaked havoc for over three years.

With an initial capacity of between 10,000 and 14,000 refugees around 1994, the camp now houses 49,386 people and several hundred continue to arrive each month, according to the UNHCR.

The deadline for refugees to return to the camp was April 28, but a last-minute court injunction gave them a brief respite.