A century of exploitive Belgian colonial domination and three decades of cleptocratic dictatorship by Mobutu had given Congo's diverse population little chance to discover and develop it's great potential and the nation's rich capacity. Instead, it had stirred sentiments of distrust and hatred along tribal lines and had left the people empty handed. Regional conflicts had weakened the national security and border disputes had disturbed the relationships with neighboring countries. The stage was set for a popular rebellion, which was supported by the Ugandan and Rwandan governments and successfully led to a change of leadership in the re-named Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The following year, dissatisfaction among military ranks led to yet another, less popular civil war. Several of the Congo's neighbors saw a chance to defend and secure their own interests by supporting the different sides in the conflict.
1996-1997: Civil War and Change of Power
In 1994, refugee camps had been set up in eastern Zaire for more than two million Rwandan Hutu's who fled their country out of fear for revenge after the massacre of over 500,000 rival Rwandan Tutsi and moderate Hutu people. In these camps Hutu militiamen, who had organized the ethnic killings along with former Rwandan soldiers, were allowed to mingle freely with civilian refugees and turned the camps into bases for rearmament. Widespread sentiments against the Tutsi population, who have been living for many generations in South Kivu and are known as the Banyamulenge, as well as an unresolved dispute over their Zairian citizenship complicated the situation. What initially appeared to be a regional uprising in the defense of the Zairian Tutsi population and to incapacitate extremist Rwandan Hutus, soon grew into a national Zairian rebellion. The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL), under the command of Laurent Desire Kabila and with covert support from the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan government, aimed to overthrow the Mobutu regime.
During nine months of bush war, the unpaid and unmotivated government soldiers offered little resistance. Mobutu fled to Morocco, and the rebels were welcomed by the population of the nation's capital, Kinshasa, as their liberators on May 17, 1997. Kabila restored the country's name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, appointed himself as President under a one party rule and installed a strict order against corruptive practices, which relieved the population from the harassments it had endured for many years from Mobutu's soldiers. With this last measure, Kabila earned large public support, but throughout the first year of his rule, criticism grew both at home and internationally. His refusal to cooperate with a UN team to investigate alleged atrocities by his Tutsi allies against unarmed Hutu refugees during the civil war made the international community skeptical about Kabila's concerns for human rights. The frequent detentions of opposing political figures and journalists, and the perceived absence of efforts for democratic reforms put in doubt his government's commitment to future political pluralism. The lack of improvement in the economy and unemployment figures tested the population's patience with the new regime, while it was outspokenly displeased with the long term presence of Rwandan troops in the country.
Tensions between Kabila and his Rwandan allies became overt in May 1998, when Rwanda refused an invitation to a summit preceding the first anniversary of the liberation. Two months later Kabila ordered the Rwandan elements in the military to return to their country. This caused an uprising of the ethnically related Congolese Tutsi soldiers and other disenchanted factions of the Congolese army. Under the command of Jean-Pierre Ondekane, the country experienced the outbreak of a second civil war in less than two years time. The intellectual opposition politicians, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba and Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma and Kabila's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bizima Kahara, profiled themselves as the political backbone of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), accusing Kabila of corruption, nepotism and violation of human rights.
Kabila on the other hand, identified Rwanda and Uganda with their Tutsi-led governments as the invading enemies of the country. Threatened by their quick gains in both eastern and western Congo, Kabila called upon the country's other neighbors to help defend the integrity of the DRC's borders. He also attracted and trained the rival Rwandan Hutu militia, to help fight the enemy. In broadcasted speeches of its leaders, the population was summoned to take initiatives to rid the country of all hostile elements, hereby stirring the ever present sentiments of ethnic hatred. Military support from Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, prevented the rebel forces from capturing Kinshasa, and towns in western Congo were retaken by the allied forces. With the rebels continuing to make advances in the east of the country, Chad also joined the allied forces. Southern African countries, unified in the Southern African Development Committee (SADC), became split over the approach towards a solution to the geographically expanding war, with open conflict between the presidents of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The fight against a common enemy united otherwise disagreeing groups within the Congolese population. Kabila, aware of his soaring popularity in the beginning of the war, stressed his intentions to pursue the national multi-party elections scheduled for April 1999. In January 1999 he allowed the registration of political parties under a multitude of strict conditions, which the main opposition leaders rejected as insincere. The SADC allied forces' failure to bring a halt to the fighting and Kabila's refusal to meet with rebel leaders incapacitated efforts by African leaders for a negotiated settlement to the conflict. Faced with the dilemma of a divided country with only half of the territory under government control, Kabila delayed the elections. Instead, he announced a national debate about the Congo's future, for April 1999. Objections to the character and agenda of this debate, the selection of its participants and the choice of location have given rise to serious doubts about its success. This debate has since been postponed and is supposed to be hosted by Kenya in June 1999. Negotiations initiated in April 1999 by Libyan President Khadaffi have facilitated agreements between Kabila, the SADC allied forces and Ugandan representatives. Without the signature of the rebel and Rwandan leaderships, however, this agreement offers little guarantee for an end to the hostilities.
Within the different groups that have joined the rebellion, disagreements surfaced about the ideology, quality and style of the RDC's leadership. Distrust about personal ambitions to pursue the rebellion caused rivalry between the leaders, while differences between the military sponsors, Rwanda and Uganda, became apparent in their backing of different factions. After Ngoma had quit the rebel movement in the beginning of 1999, Wamba dia Wamba was sidelined during an emergency meeting of the RCD in May 1999, where Dr. Emile Ilunga was named instead as the new leader of the movement.
Allegedly seven nations and multiple warring rebel factions from neighboring countries are militarily involved in the Congo conflict. Despite a peace accord signed in 1994 rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) have renewed and intensified their fight against the Angolan government. In a continuation of the civil strife in neighboring Congo Republic, confrontations between forces loyal to the former democratically elected but ousted president Lissouba and military leader Sassou Ngesso account for great insecurity and vast destruction. Much of the Central African region seems to have entered an era of prolonged political and military instability, inflamed by ethnic conflict. A humanitarian disaster of unforseen magnitude is well on its way.
Basically, it all comes down to a conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis. It is an ethnic conflict which spreads across national borders.
BBC has a nice little FAQ:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/148462.stm, as well as a nice timeline:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1072684.stm
