Ohk boss Tanzania ilikuwa behind removal of Mobutu! Happy? Ila story za kijiweni haziwezi kupanua fikra zako kujua kiini cha Mobutu kufurushwa kwa vile tu Joseph Kabila alikulia na aliishi Tanzania na alimtembelea Mkapa, basi na vita yao ni Tanzania walim-support! Jaribu kujua Congo's first and second wars, labda itakusaidia! Tanzania haikuhusika kwa namna yeyote ile kwenye vita!
Congo: The First and Second Wars, 1996-2003
Posted by Mollie Zapata on November 29, 2011
Editor’s Note: This post is a brief history, intended to provide a contextual background for understanding the complex issues that the Enough Project works on. It is part of the series Enough 101.
The First Congo War: October 1996 – May 1997
The post-Mobutu phase of the Congo’s history cannot be understood without factoring in neighboring countries, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide was the spark that lit the regional fire. In the Rwandan genocide, Hutu-power groups (called the
Interahamwe and the
Impuzamugambi) led mass killings of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus, murdering 800,000 people in approximately 100 days.
In response, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, overthrew the Rwandan Hutu government.
During and after the genocide, an estimated 2 million refugees, mostly Hutu, poured over Rwanda’s western border into the Congo.
The refugee camps in eastern Congo served as de facto army bases for the exiled Interhamwe and Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, or ALiR, genocidaires. They terrorized and robbed the local population with impunity until
October 1996, when eastern Congolese Banyamulenge (Tutsi) led an uprising to force the Rwandans out of the Congo, sparking the First Congo War.
In response, Rwandan and Ugandan armies backing Laurent-Désiré Kabila invaded the Congo. The combined effort was called the
Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, or AFDL. By December they controlled eastern Congo, and in
May 1997 they marched into Kinshasa and overthrew Mobutu’s government.
The country was re-named the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kabila took over as president in
September 1997.
Second Congo War/ The Great War of Africa: August 1998 – July 2003
Despite the new government, the eastern Congo
continued to be an unstable war zone. Kabila turned on his former backers (Rwanda and Uganda) and allowed Hutu armies to regroup in eastern Congo. This resulted in a Rwandan/Ugandan joint invasion in
1998.
Neighboring countries came to Kabila’s rescue and temporarily halted the Rwandan and Ugandan troops. The five-year conflict pitted Congolese government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, against rebels and soldiers backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
In
July 1999, the seven countries involved signed the Lusaka Peace Accord and 5,000 U.N. peacekeepers (the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or MONUC) were sent to monitor the situation.
In
January 2001, President Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard, and his son, Joseph Kabila, took over.
Joseph Kabila proved to be an adept negotiator and in
2002 completed successful peace deals that finally saw Rwanda’s and Uganda’s withdrawal from the Congo.
In
December 2002, Kabila negotiated a peace deal with internal rebel groups, promising them a power-sharing interim government. This deal became official when Kabila signed a transitional constitution in
April 2003.
For more on the Congo’s history, read last week’s Enough 101 post, “
Congo: Colonialism through Dictatorship, 1400s-1997.”
This week's post in the series Enough 101 looks at Congolese history from 1996 to 2003, at the time of the first and second Congo wars.
enoughproject.org
MY TAKE
Na kwa kifupi East Africa standby forces wanaenda kuliamsha tena Congo third war! This time Kenya akiwa new member na Uganda akiwa na a very advanced air capability huku kwa SADC forces Zimbabwe is out of the picture ila Namibia, Angola still there. Na namshauri Samia asipeleke TPDF huko!