Second Congo War
The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted when Congolese president Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his former allies from Rwanda and Uganda, who had helped him seize power. The conflict expanded as Kabila rallied a coalition of other countries to his defense. The war drew in nine African nations and approximately 25 armed groups, making it one of the largest wars in African history.
Although a peace agreement was signed in 2002, and the war officially ended on 18 July 2003 with the establishment of the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, violence has persisted in various regions, particularly in the east, through ongoing conflicts such as the Lord's Resistance Army insurgency and the Kivu and Ituri conflicts.
The Second Congo War and its aftermath caused an estimated 5.4 million deaths, primarily due to disease, malnutrition and war crimes, making it the deadliest conflict since World War II, according to a 2008 report by the International Rescue Committee. The conflict also displaced approximately 2 million people, forcing them to flee their homes or seek asylum in neighboring countries. Additionally, the war was heavily influenced by, and funded by, the trade of conflict minerals, which continues to fuel violence in the region.
Background
First Congo War
The First Congo War began in 1996, as Rwanda increasingly expressed concern that Hutu members of Republican Rally for Democracy in Rwanda militias were carrying out cross-border raids from what was then Zaire, and planning an invasion of Rwanda. These mostly Hutu militias had entrenched themselves in refugee camps in eastern Zaire, where many had fled to escape the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front in the aftermath of 1994's Rwandan genocide.The Tutsi-dominated RPF government of Rwanda, which had gained power in July 1994, protested this as a violation of Rwandan territorial integrity, and began arming the ethnically Tutsi Banyamulenge of eastern Zaire. The Mobutu regime of Zaire vigorously denounced this intervention, though it possessed neither the military capability to halt it, nor the political capital to attract international assistance.
Kabila's march to Kinshasa
With active support from Uganda, Rwanda, and Angola, the Tutsi forces of Laurent-Désiré Kabila moved methodically down the Congo River, encountering only light resistance from the poorly trained, ill-disciplined forces of Mobutu's crumbling regime. The bulk of Kabila's fighters were Tutsi – many of them veterans of various conflicts in the continent's Great Lakes region. Kabila himself provided credibility, largely reflecting his long-time political opposition to Mobutu, and his role as a follower of Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba had been the first prime minister of the independent Congo, who had been executed by a combination of internal and external forces in a murder ordered by the CIA, in January 1961, ultimately being replaced by Mobutu in 1965. Kabila had declared himself a Marxist, and an admirer of Mao Zedong. He had been waging armed rebellion in eastern Zaire for more than three decades.In December 1996, near the end of the Great Lakes refugee crisis, Kabila's army began a slow movement west, taking control of border towns and mines and solidifying control. There were reports of massacres and of brutal repression by the rebel army. A UN human-rights investigator published statements from witnesses who claimed that Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo had committed massacres, with the advancing army killing as many as 60,000 civilians. The ADFLC strenuously denied this claim. Roberto Garreton stated that his investigation in the town of Goma turned up allegations of disappearances, torture, and killings; he quoted, an aide to Mobutu, as saying that such casualties should be expected in wartime.
Kabila's forces, with support of Rwanda, launched an offensive in earlier October 1996 in South Kivu, and demanded that the Kinshasa government surrender. The rebels took Kasenga on 27 March 1997. The government denied the rebels' success, starting a long pattern of false statements from the defense minister on the progress and conduct of the war. Negotiations were proposed in late March, and on 2 April a new Prime Minister of Zaire, Étienne Tshisekedi—a longtime rival of Mobutu—was installed. Kabila, by this point in control of roughly one-quarter of the country, dismissed this as irrelevant, and threatened Tshisekedi that if he accepted the post he would have no part in a new government.
The ADFLC made consistent progress in its advance from the east throughout April 1997, and by May its troops had reached the outskirts of Kinshasa. Mobutu fled Kinshasa on 16 May, and the "libérateurs" entered the capital without serious resistance. Mobutu fled the country, and died in exile in Morocco, four months later. Kabila proclaimed himself president on 17 May 1997; immediately ordering a violent crackdown to restore order, and began attempting a reorganisation of the nation.
Unwelcome support from other African nations
When Kabila gained control of the capital, in May 1997, he faced substantial obstacles to governing the country. He renamed the state, from Zaire, to Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to political jostling among various groups seeking to gain power, and an enormous external debt, his foreign backers proved unwilling to leave when asked. The conspicuous Rwandan presence in the capital rankled many Congolese, who began to see Kabila as a pawn of foreign powers.Tensions reached new heights on 14 July 1998, when Kabila dismissed his Rwandan chief of staff James Kabarebe, replacing him with a native Congolese, chief of staff Célestin Kifwa. Although this move chilled what was already a troubled relationship with Rwanda, Kabila softened the blow by making Kabarebe the military adviser to his successor.
Two weeks later, Kabila reversed to his previous decision, thanking Rwanda for its help, and ordering all Rwandan and Ugandan military forces to leave the country. Within 24 hours, Rwandan military advisers living in Kinshasa were unceremoniously flown out. Those most alarmed by this order were the Banyamulenge Tutsi of eastern Congo; their tensions with neighboring ethnic groups had been a contributing factor in the genesis of the First Congo War, and they were also used by Rwanda to affect events across the border in the DRC.
Course of the war
1998–1999
On 2 August 1998, the Banyamulenge in Goma erupted into rebellion. Rwanda offered them immediate assistance, and early in August a well-armed rebel group, the Rally for Congolese Democracy —composed primarily of Banyamulenge and backed by Rwanda and Uganda—emerged. This group quickly came to dominate the resource-rich eastern provinces, and based its operations in Goma. The RCD quickly took control of the towns of Bukavu and Uvira in the Kivus. The Tutsi-led Rwandan government allied with Uganda, and Burundi also retaliated, occupying a portion of northeastern Congo. To help remove the occupying Rwandans, President Kabila enlisted the aid of refugee Hutu in eastern Congo and began to agitate public opinion against the Tutsi, resulting in several public lynchings in the streets of Kinshasa. On 12 August a loyalist army major broadcast a message urging resistance from a radio station in Bunia in eastern Congo: "People must bring a machete, a spear, an arrow, a hoe, spades, rakes, nails, truncheons, electric irons, barbed wire, stones, and the like, in order, dear listeners, to kill the Rwandan Tutsis."The Rwandan government also challenged current borders by claiming a substantial part of eastern Congo as "historically Rwandan". The Rwandans alleged that Kabila was organising a genocide against their Tutsi brethren in the Kivu region. The degree to which Rwandan intervention was motivated by a desire to protect the Banyamulenge, as opposed to using them as a smokescreen for its regional aspirations after ousting Mobutu, is still being debated.
In a bold move, Rwandan soldiers under the command of James Kabarebe hijacked three planes and flew them to the government base of Kitona on the Atlantic coast. The planes landed in the middle of the Kitona base, but the motley collection of troops there were in poor condition and in no condition to fight unless given food and weapons. They were quickly won over to the Rwandan side. More towns in the east and around Kitona fell in rapid succession, as the combined RCD, Rwandan and rebel soldiers overwhelmed government forces amid a flurry of ineffectual diplomatic efforts by various African nations. By 13 August, less than two weeks after the revolt had begun, rebels held the Inga hydroelectric station that provided power to Kinshasa as well as the port of Matadi through which most of Kinshasa's food passed. The diamond center of Kisangani fell into rebel hands on 23 August and forces advancing from the east had begun to threaten Kinshasa by late August. Uganda, while retaining joint support of the RCD with Rwanda, also created a rebel group that it supported exclusively, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo.
Despite the movement of the front lines, fighting continued throughout the country. Even as rebel forces advanced on Kinshasa, government forces continued to battle for control of towns in the east of the country. The Hutu militants with whom Kabila was co-operating were also a significant force in the east. Nevertheless, the fall of the capital and of Kabila, who had spent the previous weeks desperately seeking support from various African nations and Cuba, seemed increasingly certain.
The rebel offensive was abruptly reversed as Kabila's diplomatic efforts bore fruit. The first African countries to respond to Kabila's request for help were fellow members of the Southern African Development Community. While officially the SADC members are bound to a mutual defence treaty in the case of outside aggression, many member nations took a neutral stance to the conflict. However, the governments of Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola supported the Kabila government after a meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 19 August. Two more nations joined the conflict for Kabila in the following weeks: Chad and Sudan.
A multisided war thus began. In September 1998, Zimbabwean forces flown into Kinshasa held off a rebel advance that reached the outskirts of the capital, while Angolan units attacked northward from its borders and eastward from the Angolan territory of Cabinda, against the besieging rebel forces. This intervention by various nations saved the Kabila government and pushed the rebel front lines away from the capital. However, it was unable to defeat the rebel forces, and the advance threatened to escalate into direct conflict with the national armies of Uganda and Rwanda. In November 1998 a new Ugandan-backed rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, was reported in the north of the country. On 6 November Rwandan President Paul Kagame admitted for the first time that Rwandan forces were assisting the RCD rebels for security reasons, apparently after a request by Nelson Mandela to advance peace talks. On 18 January 1999, Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe agreed on a ceasefire at a summit at Windhoek, Namibia but the RCD was not invited. Fighting thus continued.
Outside of Africa, most states remained neutral, but urged an end to the violence.