Antoine Ghonda

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2007)

Antoine Mangalibi Ghonda (born February 19, 1965 in Leuven, Belgium) was the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from June 30, 2003 until July 23, 2004. Ghonda grew up in the Bas Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was then known as Zaire. During the presidency of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, he joined the Congolese Liberation Movement, a rebel group led by Jean-Pierre Bemba. In 2003, the Congolese Liberation Movement made peace with the national government led by Joseph Kabila and joined a transitional government in which there were several vice-presidents, mostly picked by the rebel groups. Bemba became one of the vice-presidents and was given the power to appoint the foreign minister. Ghonda was given the post.

Ghonda was sacked in July 2004 by Bemba. The exact reason was speculated by Congolese newspapers. They include Ghonda's criticism of troops from Rwanda and Uganda operating on Congolese soil, Ghonda's friendship with Joseph Kabila, and the mentioning of Ghonda by George W. Bush as one of the three pillars of the new Congo, with Bemba not being mentioned.