First Congo War in the context of "Joseph Kabila"

The Great Lakes refugee crisis is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide. However, the humanitarian relief effort was vastly compromised by the presence among the refugees of many of the Interahamwe and government officials who carried out the genocide, who used the refugee camps as bases to launch attacks against the new government led by Paul Kagame. The camps in Zaire became particularly politicized and militarized. The knowledge that humanitarian aid was being diverted to further the aims of the genocidaires led many humanitarian organizations to withdraw their assistance. The conflict escalated until the start of the First Congo War in 1996, when RPF-supported rebels invaded Zaire and sought to repatriate the refugees. The conflict escalated again with the start of the Second Congo War, also called Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, that began in 1998 when the Congolese president Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his former allies from Rwanda and Uganda. The conflict continues with the Kivu conflict that started in 2004 with the start of the M23 rebellion that started in 2012.

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.

Laurent Nkunda Mihigo (born Laurent Nkundabatware; February 2, 1967) is a Congolese former military officer and warlord who operated in the North Kivu Province during the Kivu conflict.

Nkunda, who is a Congolese Tutsi, initially fought as a rebel fighter in the Rwandan Civil War alongside the forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) against the genocidal Hutu-led government in Rwanda. In 1996, he returned to the Congo and joined Laurent Kabila's AFDL forces during the First Congo War. However, he later rebelled against Kabila's government and joined the rebellion led by Rwandan-aligned rebels during the Second Congo War. Following the end of the Second Congo War, he was integrated into the Congolese Army in 2003 but would again later rebel against the government, marking the beginning of the Kivu conflict.

Laurent-Désiré Kabila (French pronunciation: [lo.ʁɑ̃ de.zi.ʁe ka.bi.la]; 27 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) usually known as Laurent Kabila or Kabila the Father (US: pronunciation), was a Congolese rebel and politician who served as the third president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997 until his assassination in 2001.

Kabila initially gained prominence as an opponent of Mobutu Sese Seko during the Congo Crisis (1960–1965). He took part in the Simba rebellion and led the Communist-aligned Fizi rebel breakaway state in eastern Congo from 1967 to 1988 before disappearing from public. In the 1990s, Kabila re-emerged as leader of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL), a Rwandan and Ugandan-sponsored rebel group that invaded Zaire and overthrew Mobutu during the First Congo War from 1996 to 1997. Following the war, Kabila became the new president of the country, whose name was changed back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Banyamulenge are a community that lives mainly in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and trace their ancestral origins to what is now Rwanda. Their main language is Kinyarwanda.

The Banyamulenge played a role in Mobutu's war against and victory over the Simba Rebellion, which was not supported by the majority of other tribes in South Kivu. They supported him to be naturalised in what was then Zaire. Their role during the First Congo War and subsequent regional conflicts (Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma, Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, National Congress for the Defence of the People, and more importantly for the fact that two of the most influential presidents of their country declared them as enemies of the state in both 1996 (Mobutu Sese Seko) and 1998 (Laurent-Désiré Kabila).

The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (French: Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo), also known by the French acronym AFDL, was a coalition of armed movements and political organizations composed of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Congolese dissidents, and various disaffected ethnic and political groups. Formed on 18 October 1996, the AFDL launched a military campaign that culminated in the overthrow of President Mobutu Sese Seko and the ascension of Laurent-Désiré Kabila to power in May 1997, which then marked the end of the First Congo War. Although the group was successful in overthrowing Mobutu, the alliance fell apart after Kabila did not agree to be dictated by his foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda, which marked the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998.

Members of the AFDL and their allied forces were responsible for widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, massacres of unarmed civilians and refugees, arbitrary detentions, "disappearances", and acts of torture and sexual violence. These abuses, often condoned or directed by political and military leaders within the movement, were committed with near-total impunity, as many perpetrators later assumed positions of authority in the new government. Amnesty International and other organizations also condemned the international community's inaction, noting that the United Nations Secretary-General's Investigative Team (SGIT) confirmed that AFDL and the Rwandan forces had committed atrocities amounting to serious violations of international humanitarian law, some potentially constituting genocide, but the UN Security Council failed to take adequate measures in response.

The Land Forces (French: Forces Terrestres), also called the Congolese army, are the land warfare component and the largest branch of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC).

The current Congolese army has its origins in the Force Publique that was active in the Belgian Congo, which was renamed the Congolese National Army (Armée nationale congolaise, ANC) when the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960. During the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, it was renamed the Armed Forces of Zaire (Forces Armées Zaïroises, FAZ) in 1971 with the country's name change from Congo to Zaire. Under Mobutu's leadership the FAZ was used to put down various rebellions but was deliberately kept weak to prevent any possible coup, resulting in its collapse in the face of Laurent Kabila's AFDL rebel movement during the First Congo War (1996–1997). After Kabila's overthrow of Mobutu the former FAZ troops and various rebels that supported him were in no condition to fight the invasion by Rwandan-backed militant groups during the Second Congo War (1998–2003) and largely collapsed.