The First Congo War was a conflict from late 1996 to 1997 in which Zairean President Mobutu Sésé Seko was overthrown by rebel forces backed by foreign powers such as Uganda and Rwanda. Rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila declared himself president and changed the name of the nation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The war set the foundation for, and was quickly followed by, the Second Congo War.
Origins
Mobutu had controlled Zaïre since 1965 with backing from the United States, who had viewed him as a bulwark against Soviet-backed Communist leaders like Patrice Lumumba, whom Mobutu had deposed in 1960 with Belgian and CIA assistance.
The early 1990s had seen a wave of democratization in Africa. There was substantial internal and external pressure for democratization in Zaïre, and Mobutu promised reform. He officially ended the one-party system he had maintained since 1967, but ultimately was unwilling to implement broad reform, alienating allies both at home and internationally.
There had long been considerable internal resistance to Mobutu's rule. Opposition included leftists who looked back on the abortive rule of Patrice Lumumba with fondness as well as various ethnic and regional minorities opposed to the dominance of the Kinshasa region over the rest of the country. Kabila was one of these. He was also an ethnic Katangese who had been fighting the Mobutu government for decades.
The Rwandan Genocide resulted in the flight of 2 million refugees, mostly Hutus, from Rwanda after the Rwandan Patriotic Front took over the country in July 1994. Among the refugees were members of the Interahamwe, militia groups who took part in the genocide. They set up camps in eastern Congo from which they attacked both Rwandan Tutsis and local Zairian Tutsis called the Banyamulenge. Mobutu, whose control of the country was beginning to weaken, supported the Hutu extremists for political reasons and did nothing to stop the ongoing violence.
Course of the war
When Mobutu Sésé Seko's government issued an order in November 1996 forcing the Banyamulenge to leave Zaire on penalty of death, they erupted in rebellion. The anti-Mobutu forces combined to form the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire (ADFL). Due to the support of the leaders of African Great Lakes states, particularly Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and given no sign of foreign military assistance for Mobutu, the Zairian Army joined Laurent-Désiré Kabila, and they marched from eastern DRC on Kinshasa. Resistance crumbled in front of them, and Mobutu fled the country. Kabila formally took power on May 20, 1997, and he renamed Zaïre the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
However, once Kabila was in power the situation changed dramatically. He quickly became suspected of being as corrupt and authoritarian as his predecessor. Many of the pro-democracy forces abandoned him and he began a vigorous effort to centralize control. This brought renewed conflict with the minority groups of the east who demanded autonomy. Furthermore, Kabila turned against his former Rwandan allies when they showed little sign of withdrawing from his territory. He accused them and their allies of trying to capture the region's mineral resources. Furthermore, his overreliance on the Rwandans for political and military control was a major reason that pro-democracy forces accused Kabila of being a puppet of Kigali.
In August 1998, Kabila removed all ethnic Tutsis from his Government and ordered all Rwandan and Ugandan officials out of the DRC. The two countries then turned against their former client, sending troops to aid rebels attempting to overthrow Kabila and triggering the Second Congo War.
Glossary of Armed Groups
Democratic Republic of Congo
Burundi
Rwanda
- Armée de Libération du Rwanda (ALiR): The Hutu successor organization to the Interahamwe and RDR based in the Kivus, with recruitment from Congolese Hutus. Merged into the FDLR in September 2000.
- Interahamwe: Rwandese anti-Tutsi Hutus responsible for the genocide who were forced into eastern Congo
- Rassemblement Démocratique pour le Rwanda: The Hutu successor organization to the Interhamwe in Congo that morphed into the ALiR
- Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) : Tutsi-dominated national military of Rwanda. Changed its name to the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) in June 2002
- Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF): Political wing of Uganda-based Tutsi rebel group led by Paul Kagame that chased out the genocidaire in 1994. Now the ruling Rwandan political party.
Uganda
- Allied Democratic Forces (ADF): Rebel group active in western Uganda with rear bases in the DRC. Largely inactive by 2004.
- National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU): Rebel group along the border with the DRC that merged into the ADF in 1996
- Uganda Peoples Defense Force (UPDF): The national army of Uganda
