Conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic republic of Congo is second largest country in central Africa and its eastern part is neighboured by Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
DRC was a Belgian colony till 1960. The independence came but with a total disintegration among several regions that fought with each other. In 1965, one Joseph Mobutu seized power and crushed the internal rebellions and unified the nation and named it Zaire. Once most of the country was under control of Mobutu, he started using the riches of the country to ensure just one thing — he remains in power. Thus, he remained in power by whatsoever means till 1994. In this long regime, numerous separatists rose and the control gradually slipped out of his control.
In 1994, there was systematic killing of hundreds of thousands of people belonging to the Tutsi minority ethnic group by the majority Hutus in neighbouring country Rwanda. Most of the killing occurred within a span of 100 days in the summer of 1994. It was carried out by two Hutu extremist military groups. At least 500,000 people were immediately killed, and as many as one million people lost their lives by the end of the massacre. The genocide had its roots in the Rwanda Civil War, which pitted the majority Hutus against the Uganda-supported Tutsi minority.
The DRC has a porous border. After Rwanda’s genocide Hutu regime was overthrown and more than two million Hutus fled into DR Congo fearing reprisals against them by the new, Tutsi-dominated government. Among them were many of the militiamen responsible for the genocide.
The militiamen aligned themselves with the Mobutu’s government and began to attack DR Congo’s sizeable population of ethnic Tutsis, who had lived in DRC for generations. The Tutsi government in Rwanda started to back the Tutsi militias in DRC. These Tutsi militias allied with another militia group backed by another neighbour Uganda marched on Kinshasa and overthrew the Mobutu government. After this, they installed Laurent Kabila as president and Zaire was renamed as DR Congo.
However, Kabila’s government was not able to oust the Hutu militias. Rwanda now wished to overthrow him from power. But Kabila sought support from other countries such as Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. In 2001, Laurent Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguards and his place was taken by his son Joseph Kabila, who is currently the President of DRC.
In these conflicts, the most affected region has been the North Kivu {Capital – Goma} . The Rwandan-backed rebellion has inflicted civilians several attacks, pillage, torture, rape and murder for over 18 years. There are several rebel groups operating in the region such as March 23 movement, Lord’s Resistance Army, Congolese Revolutionary Movement, People’s armed forces of Congo and so on.
