The First Congo War, lasting from November 1996 to May 1997, was a revolution in Zaire that replaced President Mobutu Sésé Seko, a decades-long dictator, with rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Destabilization in eastern Zaire that resulted from the Rwandan genocide was the final factor that caused numerous internal and external actors to align against the corrupt and inept government in Kinshasa. The new government renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although it brought little true change. Kabila alienated his allies and failed to address the issues that had led to the war, ultimately allowing the Second Congo War to begin in 1998, mere months after coming to power. In fact, some experts prefer to view the two conflicts as one war.
Read more about First Congo War: Banyamulenge Rebellion, 1996, 1997, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“The peace conference must not adjourn without the establishment of some ordered system of international government, backed by power enough to give authority to its decrees. ... Unless a league something like this results at our peace conference, we shall merely drop back into armed hostility and international anarchy. The war will have been fought in vain ...”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)