Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner
{{Short description|Foreign Minister of DRCongo since 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = Minister of State
| name = Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner
| image = Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner (2024) (cropped).jpg
| office = Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
| president = Félix Tshisekedi
| primeminister = Judith Suminwa
| deputy =
| term_start = 13 June 2024
| term_end =
| predecessor = Christophe Lutundula
| successor =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1983}}
| birth_place = Kinshasa, Zaire
| death_date =
| death_place =
| party =
| education = Harvard University
Fordham University
Global Campus of Human Rights
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
| caption = Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner in 2024
}}
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner (born 1983) is a political scientist and politician who was appointed as Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 13 June 2024. She replaced Christophe Lutundula.{{cite web|url=https://actualite.cd/index.php/2024/05/29/rdc-succedant-christophe-lutundula-therese-kayikwamba-face-au-defi-diplomatique-de/ |title=DRC: succeeding Christophe Lutundula, Thérèse Kayikwamba faces the diplomatic challenge of Rwandan aggression and the management of the withdrawal of MONUSCO |date=29 May 2024 | work=Actualite.cd |access-date=18 September 2024 | location=Kinshasa, DRC |format=Translated from the original French language}}
Background and education
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 Kasaï region. 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.{{cite web| url=https://www.radiookapi.net/2024/05/29/actualite/politique/therese-kayikwamba-une-politologue-avec-une-experience-onusienne-la |title=Thérèse Kayikwamba, a political scientist with UN experience, at the head of Foreign Affairs |work=Radio Okapi | date=29 May 2024 |access-date=18 September 2024 | location=Kinshasa, DRC |format=Translated from the original French language}} Her older sister, Katharina Mbuyi Wagner, born in 1978 in Kinshasa, is the senior foreign affairs political advisor to president Félix Tshisekedi.
Business career
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.
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.
Political career
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.{{cite web| work=The East African | url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/dr-congo-announces-long-awaited-government-4639712 |title=DR Congo Announces Long-Awaited Government |date=29 May 2024 |author=Patrick Ilunga |access-date=18 September 2024 |location=Nairobi, Kenya}}{{cite web|url=https://panafricanvisions.com/2024/06/dr-congo-new-government-of-55-members-including-18-women-formed/ |title=DR Congo: New Government Of 55 Members Including 18 Women Formed |work=Pan African Visions |
date=5 June 2024 |author=Badylon Kawanda Bakiman |access-date=18 September 2024 | location= Washington, DC, United States}}
She took office on 13 June 2024. One of her immediate tasks was 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 was to oversee the gradual withdrawal of MONUSCO forces from the country.{{cite web|date=13 July 2024 | url=https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-says-un-exit-unlikely-while-rwandan-troops-present-2024-07-13/ |title=Congo says UN exit unlikely while Rwandan troops present |work=Reuters |author=Ange Adihe Kasongo |access-date=18 September 2024}}{{cite web| title=Uncertainty, humanitarian crisis loom in eastern DR Congo despite extended truce with M23 |work=Xinhua News Agency |url=https://english.news.cn/20240724/8ee60b5b23604998b16fc57b07d43205/c.html |date=24 July 2024 |access-date=18 September 2024 |location=Beijing, China}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://fr-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_Kayikwamba_Wagner?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc/ Wikipedia Page In French → English]
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{{s-bef|before=Christophe Lutundula}}
{{s-ttl|title=Foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo|years=2024–present}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayikwamba Wagner, Thérèse}}
Category:Democratic Republic of the Congo diplomats
Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Category:Government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Category:21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo politicians
Category:Fordham University alumni
Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Category:Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni
Category:21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo women politicians
Category:Women government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo