Ilunga Ilunkamba Sylvestre

Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba (born 28 March 1947) is a Congolese politician who was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 2019, formally establishing his government in August 2019. He has had a long political career going back to the 1970s, having held a number of ministerial cabinet posts, and was previously a professor at the University of Kinshasa since 1979. Ilunga has also been the secretary general of Congo's national railway company. He has a reputation as an experienced public servant and technocrat, as well as an ally of former president Joseph Kabila. Ilunga worked as an economics professor at the University of Kinshasa since 1979. Ilunga entered politics in 1970 and held various government offices throughout the 1980s and 1990s, notably the cabinet posts of Minister of Planning and Minister of Finance (1990–1991) under the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko. After the fall of the Mobutu regime, Ilunga left the country and established a mining company in South Africa in 1993. He would return to the DRC a decade later. He was an economic advisor to the young President Joseph Kabila early in his term and oversaw the implementation of World Bank and IMF mandated reforms, including the privatisation of some government assets. Other potential candidates included mining executive Albert Yuma, finance minister , and former national security advisor Jean Mbuyu were suggested but were rejected by the President for different reasons. Nkulu Mitumba Kilombo, a member of the DRC's Constitutional Court, and , the former head of the Central Bank of Zaire, suggested Ilunga.

President Tshisekedi and the parliament agreed to form a new government on July 27, 2019, more than six months after the 2018 election, beginning Ilunga's formal nomination for Prime Minister. Ilunga's new cabinet included 65 members, including 48 ministers and 17 vice-ministers, out of which 42 posts went to the Common Front for Congo (coalition of pro-Kabila parties) and 23 for Heading for Change (President Tshisekedi's alliance). Negotiations between Kabila and Tshisekedi had stalled over who would control the six "sovereign ministries" listed in the DRC's constitution—Finance, Defense, Budget, Justice, Interior, and Foreign Affairs. The new cabinet was formally established in late August 2019.

On 28 January 2021, the National Assembly passed a motion of no confidence in Ilunga's cabinet, effectively forcing its resignation. The vote was boycotted by the pro-Kabila coalition, and followed the removal of the Assembly speaker in December 2020.