DEM REP OF CONGO VS REBELS
YEARS: 1998-2009 | DEATHS: 3000000
The Second Congo War is a conflict largely taking place in the territory of Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). The widest interstate war in modern African history, since 1998 it has directly involved nine African nations, as well as about twenty armed groups, and earned the epithet of "African World War". According to the International Rescue Committee, 3.8 million people have died, mostly from starvation and disease brought about by what has now become the deadliest conflict since World War II. Millions more have been displaced from their homes or are seeking asylum in neighboring countries. Despite several partially successful peace initiatives and agreements that led to an official end to the war in 2002, the armed groups have not disbanded and fighting continues as of December 2004.
ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CONGO WAR
The recent conflict in the Congo has been rooted in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and related violence in Burundi which saw hundreds of thousands of Hutus flee both countries into eastern Zaïre. The resulting refugee camps quickly became dominated by the Interahamwe Hutu militias that had carried out much of the genocide supported by Hutu members of the Rwandan military.
The First Congo War began in 1996 as an effort to punish members of these militia and to prevent raids or an invasion by the groups involved, the newly Tutsi-dominated army of Rwanda entered eastern Zaïre, supported by forces from Burundi and Uganda. This intervention was strongly opposed by the government of Zaïre under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu had been supported by the U.S. as a bulwark against the spread of communism into sub-Saharan Africa. However with the end of the Cold War, both superpowers disengaged from sub-Saharan Africa. When the United States withdrew its backing of Mobutu, rebels correctly felt that he would be easier to overthrow while deprived of superpower support. The Rwandan and Burundians began to funnel weapons and money to the anti-Sese Seko Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) under Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
SOURCE(S):
Wikipedia, published under the GNU FDL
Uppsala University Conflict Database