First war of Congo

The first war of Congo is a conflict occurred of end 1996 with 1997, at the end which the president Zairean Mobutu Sese Seko was driven out capacity by rebellious troops supported by foreign States, primarily the Uganda and the Rwanda. The chief rebels Laurent-Desired Kabila proclaimed president and changed the name of the country into Democratic republic of Congo. The war posed the stakes of the Second war of Congo which followed quickly and resulted in the beginning of the massacres for the population.

Origins

Mobutu directed Zaire starting from 1965 with the assistance of the the United States, which regarded it as a rampart against the communist leaders such Patrice Lumumba, that Mobutu deposited in 1960 with the assistance of the Belgium and the CIA.

With the beginning of the year 1990, a wave of democratization gained the Africa. There were important internal and external pressures for such a democratization in Zaire, and Mobutu promised reforms. It abolishes officially the mode of the sole party in force since 1967, but was shown not very inclined to implement the promised reforms, alienating many its traditional allies, in Zaire like outside.

There was a long tradition of revolts to the capacity of Mobutu. The opposition was in particular the fact of men of the left, asserting heritage of Patrice Lumumba, and personalities resulting from various ethnic minorities and regional opposed to the seizure of Kinshasa on the remainder of the country. Kabila was one of them. It was also in addition originating in the Katanga, province traditionally opposed to the government of Mobutu.

The Génocide in Rwanda started the exodus of approximately 2 million Rwandan refugees, mainly Hutu, this after the Rwandan Patriotic Face had seized the capacity in July 1994. Among the refugees were members of the militia Interahamwe, the military groups which took share with the genocide. They installed camps in Eastern Congo, from which they launched attacks against Tutsi Rwandan and Zairean, called Banyamulenge S. Mobutu, whose control on the country started to weaken, helped the Hutu extremists for political reasons, and did not do anything to stop incipient violence.

Unfolding of the war

In 1996, the vice-governor of the province of the South-Kivu ordered in Banyamulenge to leave Zaire under penalty of death. The latter rebelled and were combined to the opponents with Mobutu to form the Alliance of the Democratic forces for the Release of Zaire (AFDL). The AFDL profited from the support of the Head of States of the area of the Big lakes, in particular of Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, and Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda. In front of the inaction of the traditional allies of Mobutu, many members of the army Zairean joined the troops of Laurent-Desired Kabila during their walk of the Eastern borders of the country towards Kinshasa, where they entered the May 17th. Resistance crumbled vis-a-vis them, and Mobutu left the country for the Morocco where he perishes shortly after. Kabila seized officially the power in the May 20th 1997, and renamed Zaire in Democratic republic of Congo.

Once Kabila installed with the capacity, the situation changed dramatically. Kabila quickly became as suspect of corruption and authoritarianism as its predecessor. Number of the democratic forces pro gave up it and it was harnessed with a vigorous effort of centralization, which fed the conflict with the minorities of the East, which claimed more autonomy. In August 1998, all the members of Tutsi origin withdrew government when Kabila required of the Rwandan and Ugandan mercenaries to return on their premises. Indeed, the alliance of Kabila with the Rwandan ones for a military control and policy already made call it " puppet of Kigali" by the Congolese pro-democratic forces. This pushed Kabila to be turned over against its Rwandan ex-allies which showed him already very little allegiance on its territory, and which made a point of exploiting the mineral resources of the country indefinitely (especially of the East of the Country), while expressing too much contempt for the Congolese populations. It is in this context that the Second war of Congo burst.

Armed independent groups

Democratic republic of Congo

Burundi

  • National council for the defense of the democracy-Forces for the defense of the democracy (CNDD-FDD): group rebel generally known are name FDD.
  • Burundian Armed forces (FAB): national army brurundaise dominated by the Tutsi ethnos group, cooperating with the RCD and the RDF.
  • Face of national release (FLN or FROLINA): Hutu militia directed by Joseph Kalumba

Rwanda

  • Armed with release of Rwanda (ALiR): the Hutu organization which succeeded Interahamwe, based in Kivu, with a recruitment of Congolese Hutus. In the FDLR in September 2000 was melted.
  • Interahamwe : Rwandan organization anti-Tutsi Hutus responsible in the beginning for the Rwandan genocide, from now on established in Eastern Congo
  • democratic Gathering for Rwanda: the Hutu organization which succeeded Interhamwe in Congo, which will become ALiR, then FDLR
  • Rwandan patriotic Armée (APR): Rwandan national army. Name changed into Rwandan Forces of defense (FRD) patriotic in June 2002
  • Front Rwandan (FPR): political branches of exiled the Tutsi and the Hutu moderate based in Uganda, and directed by Paul Kagame, which évinça the genocidary ones in 1994. Become the party in power currently in Rwanda.

Uganda

  • Allied Democratic Forces (ADF): group active rebel in the west of Uganda, with base camps as a Democratic republic of Congo. Not very active in 2004.
  • National Army for the Release off Uganda (NALU): group rebel based close to the border with the Democratic republic of Congo, resulting from the ADF in 1996
  • Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF): national army of Uganda

See too

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