Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the context of "AFDL"

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.

Authenticité, sometimes Zairisation or Zairianisation in English, was an official state ideology of the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in what was first the Democratic Republic of Congo, later renamed Zaire. The authenticity campaign was an effort to rid the country of the lingering vestiges of colonialism and the continuing influence of Western culture and to create a more centralized and singular national identity.

The policy, as implemented, included numerous changes to the state, and to private life, including the renaming of the Congo, and its cities, as well as an eventual mandate that Zairians were to abandon their Christian names for more "authentic" ones. In addition, Western-style attire was banned and replaced with the Mao-style tunic labeled the "abacost" and its female equivalent. The policy began to wane in the late 1970s and had mostly been abandoned by 1990. It was formally abolished by President Laurent Kabila, in 1997, after the end of Zaire.

The First Congo War, also known as Africa's First World War, was a civil and international military conflict that lasted from 24 October 1996 to 16 May 1997, primarily taking place in Zaire (which was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the conflict). The war resulted in the overthrow of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, who was replaced by rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. This conflict, which also involved multiple neighboring countries, set the stage for the Second Congo War (1998–2003) due to tensions between Kabila and his former allies.

By 1996, Zaire was in a state of political and economic collapse, exacerbated by long-standing internal strife and the destabilizing effects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which had led to the influx of refugees and militant groups into the country. The Zairean government under Mobutu, weakened by years of dictatorship and corruption, was unable to maintain control, and the army had deteriorated significantly. With Mobutu terminally ill and unable to manage his fractured government, loyalty to his regime waned. The end of the Cold War further reduced Mobutu's international support, leaving his regime politically and financially bankrupt.

The Vira people or Bavira (in the plural) are one of the most numerous ethnic groups in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. These people are located in the region of Uvira in the East of the country, on the northeast coast of Lake Tanganyika at the border with Burundi. The Bavira are also known in the name of Benembuga in Kivira (Bavira language) which means "authentic Uvira citizens."

The current king of the Bavira is Lwegeleza III (Edmond). He succeeded his father Mwami Lenghe Rugaza, who was assassinated in 1997 in the violent disorder which took place after the liberation of the DRC by Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: Forces armées de la république démocratique du Congo, FARDC) are the national military forces responsible for defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The modern Congolese army descends from the Force Publique (1885–1960) of the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo and has undergone multiple reorganizations and name changes since independence, including the Armée nationale congolaise (ANC) following independence, the Forces armées zaïroises (FAZ) during the Zaire period, and the Forces armées congolaises (FAC) under Laurent-Désiré Kabila, before adopting its current designation as the FARDC.

The FARDC was rebuilt in a fragmented and uneven manner following the end of the Second Congo War in July 2003, as part of the broader peace process that sought to integrate former government troops, rebel movements, and militia groups into a unified national army. Its legal foundation was initially established under the Transitional Constitution, notably articles 118 and 188, and later superseded by the 2006 Constitution, particularly articles 187 to 192. The overall framework for national defense and the armed forces was further outlined in Law No. 04/023 of 12 November 2004, and subsequently clarified by Organic Law No. 11-012 of August 2011, which regulates the organization, command, and use of the FARDC. The armed forces is composed predominantly of land forces, alongside a small air force and an even smaller naval component, while the country also maintains a separate presidential force known as the Republican Guard and an independently operating Congolese National Police (PNC), neither of which is formally part of the armed forces. Militarily, the country is divided into three major defense zones encompassing the entire national territory, supported by military regions, bases, and specialized air and naval groupings. Since 2014, these forces have operated under three regional combatant commands corresponding to the western, south-central, and eastern regions of the country.

Joseph Kabila Kabange (/kæˈbiːlə/ kab-EE-lə, French: [ʒozɛf kabila]; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician and former military officer who was the fourth President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 to 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, in the context of the Second Congo War. He was allowed to remain in power as the president of the new transitional government after the 2002 peace agreements ended the war. Kabila founded the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) and was elected president in 2006. He was re-elected for a second term in 2011. Since stepping down after the 2018 election, Kabila, as a former president, is a senator for life. Kabila was the country's second-longest serving president.

Kabila was born in Hewa Bora II, a village in the present-day South Kivu Province of the eastern DRC. His father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, lived in isolation while leading a dissident movement against the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The younger Kabila later received education and military training in Tanzania and Uganda. He studied at Makerere University before the First Congo War broke out in 1996. His father was a founding member of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL) with Rwandan backing to overthrow Mobutu. Joseph Kabila participated in the war, which ended with his father becoming the president, and afterwards was sent to the PLA National Defense University in China. He was appointed as the deputy chief of staff of the Congolese Armed Forces, and after returning from China, was briefly the chief of staff in 1998, at the outbreak of the Second Congo War. In 2000, he became the chief of staff of the Land Forces.

Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was assassinated in his office inside his official residence at the Palais de Marbre, Kinshasa on 16 January 2001. The assassin who killed him was his 18-year-old bodyguard, Rashidi Mizele [fr], who has also been previously identified as Rashidi Kasereka. Mizele was later shot dead. It was believed that some former child soldiers (kadogos) were part of this plan.

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).