Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner in 2024 | |
| Minister of State Foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| Assumed office 13 June 2024 | |
| President | Félix Tshisekedi |
| Prime Minister | Judith Suminwa |
| Preceded by | Christophe Lutundula |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) Kinshasa, Zaire |
| Education | Harvard University Fordham University Global Campus of Human Rights Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz |
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner (born 1983) is a political scientist and politician who serves as the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, effective of 13 June 2024. She replaced Christophe Lutundula.[1]
Background and education
[edit]She was born in 1983 in the city of Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, then known as Zaire. Her mother is Congolese and her father is a former German Catholic priest, Johannes Wilhelm Wagner, from Bad Münstereifel in North Rhine-Westphalia. Born in 1937, Wagner came to Congo in 1966 where he served in the St. Alphonse parish in the popular area of Matete. He resigned from the priesthood in 1977 to marry his Congolese partner, Thérèse Kayikwamba Kabundji from Mbuji-Mayi in the Kasaïregion. They have three children, two girls and a deceased son. Wagner spent her childhood in Kinshasa, Germany, Lomé and Accra. She has academic degrees from Harvard Kennedy School, Fordham University, Global Campus of Human Rights and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.[2] Her older sister, Katharina Mbuyi Wagner, born in 1978 in Kinshasa, is the senior foreign affairs political advisor to president Félix Tshisekedi.
Business career
[edit]She has a varied career in the public and private service. Between 2009 and 2011 she worked with the German International Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ), based in Kigali, Rwanda. She then relocated to Goma, DR Congo and took up employment with Oxfam. The following year she assumed leadership responsibility of Oxfam's program to protect civilians.[2]
In 2014, she joined the United Nations, working in peacekeeping missions, including MONUSCO (DR Congo) and MINUSCA (Central African Republic). In 2019, she relocated to Nairobi (Kenya), working there as the assistant to Xia Huang, the United Nations special envoy for the African Great Lakes Region. Her position before being appointed as cabinet minister was as the Regional Program Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at the Meta Group.[2]
Political career
[edit]On 29 May 2024, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Francophonie of the DRC in the Suminwa government, headed by Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka. Kayikwamba replaced Christophe Lutundula.[3][4]
She took office on 13 June 2024. One of her immediate tasks is to attempt to work out a diplomatic settlement between the March 23 Movement, the government of Rwanda and the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The other immediate task is to oversee the gradual withdrawal of MONUSCO forces from the country.[1][5][6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "DRC: succeeding Christophe Lutundula, Thérèse Kayikwamba faces the diplomatic challenge of Rwandan aggression and the management of the withdrawal of MONUSCO" (Translated from the original French language). Actualite.cd. Kinshasa, DRC. 29 May 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
- ^ a b c "Thérèse Kayikwamba, a political scientist with UN experience, at the head of Foreign Affairs" (Translated from the original French language). Radio Okapi. Kinshasa, DRC. 29 May 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
- ^ Patrick Ilunga (29 May 2024). "DR Congo Announces Long-Awaited Government". The East African. Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
- ^ Badylon Kawanda Bakiman (5 June 2024). "DR Congo: New Government Of 55 Members Including 18 Women Formed". Pan African Visions. Washington, DC, United States. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
- ^ Ange Adihe Kasongo (13 July 2024). "Congo says UN exit unlikely while Rwandan troops present". Reuters. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
- ^ "Uncertainty, humanitarian crisis loom in eastern DR Congo despite extended truce with M23". Xinhua News Agency. Beijing, China. 24 July 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
External links
[edit]- Living people
- 1983 births
- People from Kinshasa
- Democratic Republic of the Congo politicians
- Democratic Republic of the Congo diplomats
- Ministers of foreign affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo politicians
- Fordham University alumni
- Harvard Kennedy School alumni
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni
- 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo women politicians
- Women government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo