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Augustin Matata Ponyo (Picture from worldfinance.com)

KINSHASA/DAKAR. — Democratic Republic of Congo’s Augustin Matata Ponyo said yesterday he had resigned as prime minister in line with a political deal that extends President Joseph Kabila’s tenure.President Kabila was due to step down on December 19, but his ruling coalition and part of the opposition agreed last month to delay a presidential vote until April 2018, citing logistical problems in registering millions of voters and a lack of financing.

“I have just handed in my resignation and that of my government to the president of the republic in line with the spirit of the political accord signed on October 18,” Matata said.

His departure could pave the way for a government with posts for some of those opposition figures who agreed to the election delay.

However, the main opposition bloc has rejected the accord and more than 50 people died in street protests in September aimed at increasing pressure on Kabila to step down.

President Kabila’s critics say his aim is to change the constitution, which limits him to two terms in office, in order to secure a third.

The country’s constitutional court has given the go-ahead for the rescheduling of the election.

Meanwhile, girls in conflict-ravaged eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are joining armed groups because they cannot afford to go to school, while former girl soldiers struggle to return to class amid stigma from their communities, a charity said yesterday.

Many girls in the region join militia groups to obtain food and money, to seek protection against violence, or because their families cannot afford to pay their school fees, according to a report by Britain-based Child Soldiers International (CSI).

Eastern Congo is plagued by dozens of armed groups that prey on locals and exploit mineral reserves. Millions died between 1996 and 2003 as a regional conflict caused hunger and disease.

Around a third of all children in armed groups in the country are estimated to be girls, who are often married off to militants and are vulnerable to abuse and rape, activists say.

“It is deeply shocking that, because their families cannot afford to pay school fees, some girls see joining an armed group as their only option, and decide to throw themselves in harm’s way,” said Isabelle Guitard, director of programs at CSI.

While primary education is free and compulsory by law, most schools in Congo charge fees for books and uniforms, CSI said.

“Despite the horrific abuse the girls go through while with armed groups, it is the rejection from their families and communities which distresses many of them the most,” Guitard told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from London.

In another development, the military chief of the former Congolese M23 rebel group is in Uganda’s capital Kampala and his fighters in the western part of the country, Uganda’s military said on Sunday, contradicting reports he had gone missing. Democratic Republic of Congo stepped up army patrols in its volatile east on Saturday after reports from a Congolese governor that Sultani Makenga had vanished from a camp for demobilised fighters in neighbouring Uganda. Gunfire erupted outside an important border town. — Reuters.