Kristen Dennis's List: second congo war -- all

• , with over five million deaths, the world’s deadliest war since World War II.
• peace in the region remains fragile
• tense dynamics between different armed factions in the North and South Kivu regions
• distrust between Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame.
• Relations between Rwanda and the DRC have been long affected by a crisis of belonging among ethnic Rwandans in the eastern DRC. Since early colonial times, the Kivu Provinces have served as the refuge of choice for the losers of Rwanda’s brutal power politics. Every new large migration into the DRC has raised the question of who among the country’s many ethnic Rwandans should count as Congolese.
• independence from Belgium in 1960, residents who had belonged to an indigenous ethnic group officially recognized by the colonial administration became Congolese.
• Mobutu Sese Seko, upon the recommendation of his Tutsi chief of staff, sought to end the confusion over the citizenship law by granting citizenship to all Banyarwanda residing in the DRC at the time of independence
• controversial
• a power grab
• some local authorities sought to deny national identity cards to the Banyarwanda despite the law granting them citizenship
• although many Banyarwanda were officially citizens, they never truly “lived” this citizenship
• continued mistrust between Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda and Burundi reinforced ethnic division among the Banyarwanda in the DRC.
• Local populations reacted by forming their own militias nicknamed the Mai-Mai.

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• has involved nine African nations and directly affected the lives of 50 million Congolese.
• August 1998 and April 2004 (when the bulk of the fighting occurred) 3.8 million people died in the DRC.
• Most of these deaths were due to starvation or disease that resulted from the war, not from actual fighting.
• Millions more have become internally displaced or have sought asylum in neighboring countries.
• 00 separate ethnic groups
• Societal discrimination on the basis of ethnicity is widely practiced by members of virtually all ethnic groups
• intermarriage across ethnic and regional divides is common.
• the war and genocide in neighboring Rwanda had spilled over to the DRC
• ere using Hutu refugee camps in eastern DRC as bases for incursions against Rwanda.
• Rwandan troops (RPA) entered the DRC with an armed coalition led by Laurent-Desire Kabila known as the Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Congo-Zaire (AFDL).
• al of forcibly ousting Mobutu
• ailed peace talks between Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country, and Kabila marched into Kinshasa on May 17, 1997. Kabila declared himself president, consolidated power around himself and the AFDL, and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
• relied on the Rwandan military presence in DRC for protection against hostile armed groups
• The Mai Mai
• relations between Kabila and his foreign backers deteriorated
• Kabila ordered all foreign troops to leave the DRC. Most refused to leave.
• In July 1999, a cease-fire was proposed in Lusaka, Zambia, which all six parties (The DRC, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Uganda, and Rwanda) signed by the end of August.
• parties to the Lusaka Accord failed to fully implement its provisions
• he conflict repeatedly accused the other of violating the Lusaka accord
• President of the UN Security Council requested the UN Secretary-General to establish a Panel of Experts on the illegal exploitation of the natural resources and other forms of wealth of the DRC to follow up on reports and collect information on all activities of illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the DRC,
• Laurent Kabila was assassinated
• by his son, Joseph Ka
• Inter-Congolese Dialogue began in Addis Ababa under the auspices of Ketumile Masire (former president of Botswana). The initial meetings made little progress and were adjourned. In February 2002, the dialogue was reconvened in South Africa. It included representatives from the government, rebel groups, political opposition, civil society, and the Mai-Mai . The talks ended inconclusively in April 2002
• was never implemented, and negotiations resumed in South Africa in October 2002.
• talks led to an all-inclusive powersharing agreement,
• By the end of 2002, all Angolan, Namibian, and Zimbabwean troops had withdrawn from the DRC. Rwandan troops had officially withdrawn from the DRC in October 2002, although there were continued, unconfirmed reports that Rwandan soldiers and military advisers remained integrated with RCD forces in eastern DRC.
• December 17, 2002
• he Pretoria Accord was formally ratified by all parties on April 2, 2003 in Sun City, South Africa.
• Ugandan troops officially withdrew from the DRC in May 2003.
• nominations by each of the various signatory groups, President Kabila on June 30, 2003 issued a decree that formally announced the transit
• massacres continued in eastern Congo during 2003-2004. Rwandan Hutu militiamen feared returning to Rwanda, believing they would be targeted by revenge-seeking Tutsis. These Hutu remained in the forests of east Congo, preying on villages for food and money. Rwandan incursions into the DRC disrupted the fragile government and created instability.
• t was reported that Rwandan Hutu rebels based in eastern Congo were responsible for hundreds of summary executions, rapes, beatings and hostage-taking of Congolese civilians in the territory of Walungu, South Kivu Province
• rival militias backed by Rwanda and Uganda, respectively, created instability in the northeastern region of Ituri, as they battled over border trade and gold fields
• keeping the threat of an invasion alive. Still, the rest of the country remained relatively stable under President Kabila.
• Elections
• ended in crisis.
• ncumbent Joseph Kabila and rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba,
• Kabila was inaugurated

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• 66 million.
• 250 African ethnic groups
• French
• Schooling (2007 est.)--none 21%, primary 46%, secondary 30%, university 3%.
• Copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, other minerals; petroleum; wood; hydroelectric potential.
• 250 ethnic groups
• was estimated at 66 million in 2008.

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