DR Congo Celebrates New President

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All eyes were on Felix Tshisekedi as he was sworn in as new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday. And he knew it, taking an unscheduled break to leave the stage because he felt, as he said, exhausted by the long election campaign and the emotion of this occasion.

For the more than 80 million people of this vast, mineral rich nation, this was more than just pomp and ceremony. His swearing in on Thursday represents the first peaceful transition of power in six decades -- a historic occasion for a nation long beset by conflict, instability and rough-and-tumble, winner-takes-all politics.

On Wednesday, outgoing President Joseph Kabila, who has held power for 18 years, urged the nation to accept their new leader. "It is also symbolic of the growing crystallization of democratic culture in our country that the lucky elected official, the beneficiary of this historic alternation as the head of the state, came from the opposition party," he said on national television.