DR Congo minister dies in Paris

The minister of the economy and foreign trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Andre-Philippe Futa, died overnight in Paris, aged 63, his colleagues said on Thursday in Kinshasa.

Futa "died in his sleep" in a Paris hotel, said Crispin Kalala Mpotoyi, the interim president of the Party of the National Alliance for Unity (PANU), founded by Futa in 2004.

Kalala said Futa had stopped over in Paris after representing the DR Congo at a meeting of South American and African countries in Venezuela at the end of September. The minister had been due to return to Kinshasa on Thursday.

A native of the diamond-rich central Kasai Oriental province, Futa played a key part in President Joseph Kabila's victory at the polls in 2006, by acting as coordinator of the Alliance of the Presidential Majority, the ruling coalition.

He first came to Kabila's side in April 2001, three months after Kabila was made head of state to replace his murdered father Laurent-Desire Kabila, when Futa was asked to serve as minister of agriculture. Previously, he had been the director for east Africa of the African Development Bank.

Futa became economy minister in 2002 and has also served as minister of industry, small and medium-sized businesses and of finance.

Elected a senator in 2007 in Kasai Oriental, he joined the government of Antoine Gizenga, now headed by Adolphe Muzito, as minister of the economy.