Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila is the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a former guerrilla commander. He took office ten days after the death of his father, former President Laurent-Desire Kabila. He was officially elected in 2006 and sworn in on November 27, 2006. This made him the first elected president in the Congo in 40 years and the youngest head of state in Africa. Though only 29 when he first took office, Kabila managed to end the fighting of the Second Congo Civil War, allowing some foreign troops to withdraw. He negotiated a formal peace agreement in 2002. Since the end of fighting, he has worked to prosecute those responsible of committing crimes, specifically sex crimes, during the civil wars in the Congo.