2000s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Encyclopedia
Congolese history in the 2000s has primarily revolved around the Second Congo War
(1998-2003) and the empowerment of a transitional government
.
became the head of state
in 2001 when his father, President Laurent Kabila, was assassinated. In October 2002 Kabila negotiated the withdrawal of Rwanda
n forces occupying eastern Congo. Two months later, the Pretoria Accord
was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and establish a government of national unity. The transitional period came to end with the completion of the 2006 general election
and the swearing in of Kabila as President on December 6, 2006.
On December 17, 2002 the Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue, namely: the national government, the MLC, the RCD, the RCD-ML, the RCD-N, the domestic political opposition, representatives of civil society and the Mai Mai, signed the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement. The Agreement obliges the parties to a plan to reunify the country, disarm and integrate the warring parties and hold elections. There have been numerous problems, resulting in continued instability in much of the country and a delay in the scheduled national elections from June 2005 to March 2006, later pushed back again to 30 July 2006.
This agreement marked the formal end of the Second Congo War. Three rebel groups supported by Uganda, the MLC, RCD-N and RCD-ML, signed a ceasefire, the Gbadolite Agreement
, on December 31, 2002. This obliged them to immediately stop all fighting in the Isiro
-Bafwasende
-Beni
-Watsa
quadrangle and to accept United Nations military observers in the area. It also contained guarantees of the freedom of movement of the civilian population and humanitarian organizations from one area to another. This treaty was violated numerous times.
Despite the formal end of hostilities the conflict continued. During January and February 2003, MONUC observed numerous hostile troop movements, mainly between Uganda, Rwanda and their respective proxies. On May 1, 2003 Uganda withdrew its regular forces from Bunia
and Ituri
in-line with the Luanda Agreement. Fighting erupted between the Hema and Lendu
ethnic groups between 7 May and 16 May in Bunia.
On 30 June a transitional government composed of the various groups of the Inter Congolese Dialogue was formed. Over the course of September, a reinforced MONUC presence carried out the "Bunia, weapon-free zone" operation to demilitarize the province. They were partially successful, though a low-grade conflict continues to permeate the region.
In September 2004 between 20,000 and 150,000 people fled unrest in the eastern Kivu
province caused by an advance of government troops against breakaway national army soldiers.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3681630.stm On October 1, 2004, the UN Security Council decided to deploy 5,900 more soldiers to the MONUC mission in Congo, although UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
had asked for some 12,000.
In this period the International Rescue Committee
reported that the conflict was killing 1,000 people a day, and called the international response "abysmal". Comparing the war with Iraq, it said that during 2004 Iraq received aid worth the equivalent of $138 per person, whilst the Congo received $3 per person.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4080867.stm
declared that Rwanda retained the option of sending troops into Congo to fight Hutu militants, in particular the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
(FDLR) that has not yet been disarmed as promised in the 2002 Pretoria Agreement. As of mid-December 2004 there were many reports that Rwandan forces had crossed the border. MONUC chief M'Hand Djalouzi, commenting on the reports, said on December 1, "Infiltration is nothing new but this is something else, it has the appearance of an invasion." It remains unclear whether the Rwandan military is holding territory or carrying out temporary operations. The UN has promised to investigate.
On December 16, the BBC reported that 20,000 civilians had fled fighting in the North Kivu town of Kanyaboyonga, 100 miles north of Goma. Antigovernment forces led by a Captain Kabakuli Kennedy, who has stated that he is fighting to defend the Banyamulenge, has routed loyalist government forces and holds the town and the surrounding mountains. The government sent a mediation team to investigate and accused Rwanda of supporting another insurgency. Rwanda has denied any involvement in the fighting.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4094929.stm
The International Crisis Group
released a report on 17 December warning that the Rwandan intervention threatened to roll back the progress made in years of peace talks. They further noted that the two recent wars both began in similar circumstances to that existing presently in the Kivus and that another regional war was entirely possible if diplomatic efforts were not made.http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3180
Later in 2004, Nkunda's forces began clashing with the DRC army in Sud-Kivu
and by May 2004, occupied Bukavu
where he was accused of committing war crimes. Nkunda claimed he was attempting to prevent genocide against Tutsis in the region, a claim rejected by MONUC, and denied the claim that he was following orders from Rwanda. Following UN negotiations which secured the withdrawal of Nkunda's troops from Bukuvu back to the Masisi forests, part of his army split, and led by Colonel Jules Mutebusi left for Rwanda. About 150,000 Kinyarwanda-speaking people (Nkunda's own language) were reported to have fled from Sud-Kivu to Nord-Kivu in fear of reprisal attacks by DRC army.
spokesman suggested that MONUC was useless and should be disbanded. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6983PF?OpenDocument Meanwhile, a meeting of African leaders in Abuja
agreed to send more peacekeepers
to the Congo and tasked with disarming the mainly Hutu rebel forces in an attempt to stem the escalating tensions. In response, a spokesman of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
stated on 2 February that the FDLR would resist with force any attempt to disarm it.http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-698CRR?OpenDocument The same day US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
welcomed senior officials from the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda to Washington, DC for talks aimed at easing tensions in the region.
On February 25, the resilience of the Ituri conflict
was demonstrated when nine Bangladesh
i MONUC peacekeepers were ambushed and killed by unidentified gunmen while patrolling an internally displaced person
s camp in Kafe
in Ituri Province. This was the largest single loss of peacekeeper life since the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
. Floribert Ndjabu
, the leader of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front
(FNI) militia operating in northeastern Ituri was arrested, while three other militia leaders were questioned. MONUC forces assaulted an FNI stronghold and killed fifty militia members, in what the Secretary-General
referred to as "self-defense."
On March 31 the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
(FDLR) stated that it was giving up the armed struggle and returning to Rwanda to form a political party
. This announcement followed talks mediated by Sant'Egidio
in Rome
with Congolese government representatives. If carried out by the various FDLR commanders, a return would remove one of the major sources of tensions in the region. The Rwandan government stated that any returnee who participated in the Rwandan Genocide
would face justice.
In December 2005 UN and Congolese troops launched an operation
in the Ituri district in order to restore peace and drive out the Ugandan-backed rebels.
was adopted.
With UN assistance, on July 30, 2006 free first multi-party elections
were held since independence in 1960. After this Joseph Kabila
took 45% of the votes and his opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba took 20%. That was the origin of a fight between the two parts from August 20-22, 2006 in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa
. Sixteen people died before policemen and UN mission MONUC took control of the city. A run-off election was held on 29 October of 2006. On November 11, with 65% of the votes counted and Kabila holding the lead with 61% to Bemba's 39%, and with some of Bemba's supporters claiming election fraud, fighting again broke out in the streets of Kinshasa between soldiers supporting each candidate, killing two civilians.
(FDLR) throughout 2007. More than 165,000 people fled the fighting. The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
and human rights activists accused the army of targeting civilian centers sympathetic to the FDLR. The Bravo Brigade allegedly murdered 15 civilians in Buramba village in March. General Gabriel Amisi temporarily halted operations against the FDLR in August, saying operations would resume when ethnically mixed brigades would replace the current Tutsi-majority forces.
Second Congo War
The Second Congo War, also known as Coltan War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power; however, hostilities continue to this...
(1998-2003) and the empowerment of a transitional government
Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo was tasked with moving from the state riven by the Second Congo War to a government based upon a constitution agreed on by consensus. In 2001 President Laurent Kabila was assassinated and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state...
.
2000 to 2003
Joseph KabilaJoseph Kabila
Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...
became the head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
in 2001 when his father, President Laurent Kabila, was assassinated. In October 2002 Kabila negotiated the withdrawal of Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
n forces occupying eastern Congo. Two months later, the Pretoria Accord
Pretoria Accord
The Pretoria Accord was a July 2002 agreement made between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in an effort to bring about an end to the Second Congo War...
was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and establish a government of national unity. The transitional period came to end with the completion of the 2006 general election
Democratic Republic of the Congo general election, 2006
General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 30, 2006, the first multiparty elections in the country in 41 years. Voters went to the polls to elect both a new President of the Republic and a new National Assembly, the lower-house of the Parliament.The polls were...
and the swearing in of Kabila as President on December 6, 2006.
On December 17, 2002 the Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue, namely: the national government, the MLC, the RCD, the RCD-ML, the RCD-N, the domestic political opposition, representatives of civil society and the Mai Mai, signed the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement. The Agreement obliges the parties to a plan to reunify the country, disarm and integrate the warring parties and hold elections. There have been numerous problems, resulting in continued instability in much of the country and a delay in the scheduled national elections from June 2005 to March 2006, later pushed back again to 30 July 2006.
This agreement marked the formal end of the Second Congo War. Three rebel groups supported by Uganda, the MLC, RCD-N and RCD-ML, signed a ceasefire, the Gbadolite Agreement
Gbadolite Agreement
The Gbadolite Agreement, signed on December 31, 2002 in Gbadolite, Democratic Republic of the Congo, attempted unsuccessfully to end the Second Congo War...
, on December 31, 2002. This obliged them to immediately stop all fighting in the Isiro
Isiro
Isiro is the capital of Haut-Uele District in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It lies between the equatorial forest and the savannah and its main resource is coffee. Isiro's population is estimated at approximately 150,000...
-Bafwasende
Bafwasende
Bafwasende is a town in Tshopo District in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It lies on the Lindi River.-External links:**...
-Beni
Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Beni is a town in north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, lying immediately west of the Virunga National Park and the Rwenzori Mountains, on the edge of the Ituri Forest.-Overview:...
-Watsa
Watsa
Watsa is a community in Province Orientale of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, administrative center of the Watsa Territory.Watsa was the location of the VI battalion of the Force Publique in the 1940s and 1950s....
quadrangle and to accept United Nations military observers in the area. It also contained guarantees of the freedom of movement of the civilian population and humanitarian organizations from one area to another. This treaty was violated numerous times.
2003
A transitional government was set up in July 2003; Joseph Kabila remains as president and now has four vice presidents representing the former government, former rebel groups, and the political opposition.Despite the formal end of hostilities the conflict continued. During January and February 2003, MONUC observed numerous hostile troop movements, mainly between Uganda, Rwanda and their respective proxies. On May 1, 2003 Uganda withdrew its regular forces from Bunia
Bunia
Bunia is a city in Democratic Republic of the Congo and is the headquarters of Ituri Interim Administration in the Ituri region of Orientale Province....
and Ituri
Ituri Interim Administration
The Ituri Interim Administration is an interim body that administers the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was established in 2003 by the Ituri Pacification Commission and supported by the UN mission in the DRC.-History:...
in-line with the Luanda Agreement. Fighting erupted between the Hema and Lendu
Lendu
The Lendu, or Balendru, are an ethno-linguistic agriculturalist group residing in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the area west and northwest of Lake Albert, in particular the Ituri region of Orientale province. Their language is one of the most populous of the Central Sudanic languages...
ethnic groups between 7 May and 16 May in Bunia.
On 30 June a transitional government composed of the various groups of the Inter Congolese Dialogue was formed. Over the course of September, a reinforced MONUC presence carried out the "Bunia, weapon-free zone" operation to demilitarize the province. They were partially successful, though a low-grade conflict continues to permeate the region.
In September 2004 between 20,000 and 150,000 people fled unrest in the eastern Kivu
Kivu
Kivu was the name for a large "Region" in the Democratic Republic of Congo under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko that bordered Lake Kivu. It included three "Sub-Regions" : Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Maniema, corresponding to the three current provinces created in 1986...
province caused by an advance of government troops against breakaway national army soldiers.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3681630.stm On October 1, 2004, the UN Security Council decided to deploy 5,900 more soldiers to the MONUC mission in Congo, although UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
had asked for some 12,000.
In this period the International Rescue Committee
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee is a leading nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization based in the United States, with operations in over 40 countries...
reported that the conflict was killing 1,000 people a day, and called the international response "abysmal". Comparing the war with Iraq, it said that during 2004 Iraq received aid worth the equivalent of $138 per person, whilst the Congo received $3 per person.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4080867.stm
2004
In late November 2004 Rwandan president Paul KagamePaul Kagame
Paul Kagame is the sixth and current President of the Republic of Rwanda. He rose to prominence as the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front , whose victory over the incumbent government in July 1994 effectively ended the Rwandan genocide...
declared that Rwanda retained the option of sending troops into Congo to fight Hutu militants, in particular the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda is the primary remnant Rwandan Hutu Power rebel group in the east of the of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is often referred to as simply the FDLR after its original French name: the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda...
(FDLR) that has not yet been disarmed as promised in the 2002 Pretoria Agreement. As of mid-December 2004 there were many reports that Rwandan forces had crossed the border. MONUC chief M'Hand Djalouzi, commenting on the reports, said on December 1, "Infiltration is nothing new but this is something else, it has the appearance of an invasion." It remains unclear whether the Rwandan military is holding territory or carrying out temporary operations. The UN has promised to investigate.
On December 16, the BBC reported that 20,000 civilians had fled fighting in the North Kivu town of Kanyaboyonga, 100 miles north of Goma. Antigovernment forces led by a Captain Kabakuli Kennedy, who has stated that he is fighting to defend the Banyamulenge, has routed loyalist government forces and holds the town and the surrounding mountains. The government sent a mediation team to investigate and accused Rwanda of supporting another insurgency. Rwanda has denied any involvement in the fighting.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4094929.stm
The International Crisis Group
International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world through field-based analyses and high-level advocacy.-History:...
released a report on 17 December warning that the Rwandan intervention threatened to roll back the progress made in years of peace talks. They further noted that the two recent wars both began in similar circumstances to that existing presently in the Kivus and that another regional war was entirely possible if diplomatic efforts were not made.http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3180
Later in 2004, Nkunda's forces began clashing with the DRC army in Sud-Kivu
Sud-Kivu
Sud-Kivu is a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Bukavu.Following the 2005 Constitution , 25 new provinces were to be created from the 10 current provinces within 36 months . As of October 2010, this had not taken place...
and by May 2004, occupied Bukavu
Bukavu
Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo , lying at the extreme south-eastern extent of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the Sud-Kivu province and as of 2009 it had an estimated population of...
where he was accused of committing war crimes. Nkunda claimed he was attempting to prevent genocide against Tutsis in the region, a claim rejected by MONUC, and denied the claim that he was following orders from Rwanda. Following UN negotiations which secured the withdrawal of Nkunda's troops from Bukuvu back to the Masisi forests, part of his army split, and led by Colonel Jules Mutebusi left for Rwanda. About 150,000 Kinyarwanda-speaking people (Nkunda's own language) were reported to have fled from Sud-Kivu to Nord-Kivu in fear of reprisal attacks by DRC army.
2005
On January 25, 2005 the UN reported that Uganda and Rwanda were continuing to arm insurgent groups in eastern Congo, in violation of a United Nations arms embargo in the region. Both nations denied any wrongdoing, and the UPDFUganda People's Defence Force
The Uganda Peoples Defence Force , previously the National Resistance Army, is the armed forces of Uganda. The International Institute for Strategic Studies estimates the UPDF has a total strength of 40–45,000, and consists of land forces and an Air Wing.The IISS Military Balance 2007 says there...
spokesman suggested that MONUC was useless and should be disbanded. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-6983PF?OpenDocument Meanwhile, a meeting of African leaders in Abuja
Abuja
Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the centre of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital Territory . Abuja is a planned city, and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos...
agreed to send more peacekeepers
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
to the Congo and tasked with disarming the mainly Hutu rebel forces in an attempt to stem the escalating tensions. In response, a spokesman of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda is the primary remnant Rwandan Hutu Power rebel group in the east of the of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is often referred to as simply the FDLR after its original French name: the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda...
stated on 2 February that the FDLR would resist with force any attempt to disarm it.http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-698CRR?OpenDocument The same day US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
welcomed senior officials from the DRC, Uganda and Rwanda to Washington, DC for talks aimed at easing tensions in the region.
Ituri Conflict
The Ituri conflict is a conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo . While there have been many phases to the conflict, the most recent armed clashes ran from 1999 to 2003, with a low-level...
was demonstrated when nine Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i MONUC peacekeepers were ambushed and killed by unidentified gunmen while patrolling an internally displaced person
Internally displaced person
An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...
s camp in Kafe
KAFE
KAFE is a 60 kW radio station located and licensed in Bellingham, Washington, USA, transmitting from Mount Constitution on Orcas Island...
in Ituri Province. This was the largest single loss of peacekeeper life since the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
. Floribert Ndjabu
Floribert Ndjabu
Floribert Ndjabu is leader of the Nationalist Integrationist Front in Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, the leader of the Nationalist and Integrationist Front
Nationalist and Integrationist Front
The Nationalist and Integrationist Front is a Lendu rebel group active in the Ituri conflict in Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FNI has fought against the Hema tribe and is blamed for the ambush and murder of nine MONUC peacekeepers near the town of Kafe in February 2005...
(FNI) militia operating in northeastern Ituri was arrested, while three other militia leaders were questioned. MONUC forces assaulted an FNI stronghold and killed fifty militia members, in what the Secretary-General
Secretary-General
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
referred to as "self-defense."
On March 31 the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda is the primary remnant Rwandan Hutu Power rebel group in the east of the of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is often referred to as simply the FDLR after its original French name: the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda...
(FDLR) stated that it was giving up the armed struggle and returning to Rwanda to form a political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
. This announcement followed talks mediated by Sant'Egidio
Community of Sant'Egidio
The Community of Sant'Egidio is a Christian community that is officially recognized by the Catholic Church as a "Church public lay association". It claims 50,000 members in more than 70 countries...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
with Congolese government representatives. If carried out by the various FDLR commanders, a return would remove one of the major sources of tensions in the region. The Rwandan government stated that any returnee who participated in the Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
would face justice.
In December 2005 UN and Congolese troops launched an operation
Operation North Night Final
Operation North Night Final was a joint DR Congo-UN peacekeeper operation in December 2005 to restore peace in the troubled Ituri district in DR Congo. The operation was mainly aimed at fighting the Ugandan rebels stationed there and involved ca...
in the Ituri district in order to restore peace and drive out the Ugandan-backed rebels.
2006
The constitution of the DRC was formally adopted on 19 February 2006 after it was approved in a popular referendum in December. A new national flagFlag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was adopted on 20 February 2006. A new constitution, ratified in December 2005 and which came into effect in February 2006, promulgated a return to a flag similar to that flown between 1963 and 1971, with a change from a more royal blue to sky blue,...
was adopted.
With UN assistance, on July 30, 2006 free first multi-party elections
Democratic Republic of the Congo general election, 2006
General elections were held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 30, 2006, the first multiparty elections in the country in 41 years. Voters went to the polls to elect both a new President of the Republic and a new National Assembly, the lower-house of the Parliament.The polls were...
were held since independence in 1960. After this Joseph Kabila
Joseph Kabila
Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...
took 45% of the votes and his opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba took 20%. That was the origin of a fight between the two parts from August 20-22, 2006 in the streets of the capital, Kinshasa
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
. Sixteen people died before policemen and UN mission MONUC took control of the city. A run-off election was held on 29 October of 2006. On November 11, with 65% of the votes counted and Kabila holding the lead with 61% to Bemba's 39%, and with some of Bemba's supporters claiming election fraud, fighting again broke out in the streets of Kinshasa between soldiers supporting each candidate, killing two civilians.
2007
Tutsi-majority army brigades fought with the Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of RwandaDemocratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda
The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda is the primary remnant Rwandan Hutu Power rebel group in the east of the of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is often referred to as simply the FDLR after its original French name: the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda...
(FDLR) throughout 2007. More than 165,000 people fled the fighting. The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or MONUSCO , is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was established by the United Nations Security Council in resolutions 1279...
and human rights activists accused the army of targeting civilian centers sympathetic to the FDLR. The Bravo Brigade allegedly murdered 15 civilians in Buramba village in March. General Gabriel Amisi temporarily halted operations against the FDLR in August, saying operations would resume when ethnically mixed brigades would replace the current Tutsi-majority forces.
See also
- Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the CongoTransitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the CongoThe Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo was tasked with moving from the state riven by the Second Congo War to a government based upon a constitution agreed on by consensus. In 2001 President Laurent Kabila was assassinated and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state...
- Transitional National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
External links
- Global and Inclusive Agreement on Transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, signed in Pretoria, South Africa on 16 December 2002
- CIA World Factbook
- Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments - DRC
- MONUC website
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Ripples of Genocide: Journey through Eastern Congo, testimonials from foreign visitors from 2002 and 2003