Alliance of Democratic Forces For The Liberation of Congo - The Course of The War

The Course of The War

One of the first actions of the ADFL after it began to capture towns along the Zairean border was the dispersal of the large Hutu refugee camps that were offering safe haven to many RDR militants, an act humanitarian and human rights organizations fiercely criticized. As each camp was destroyed, the refugees fled to the next, creating camps with massive populations. One camp at Mugungu, north of Lake Kivu, reached 500,000 inhabitants, which is completely unmanageable by humanitarian organizations. However, in fierce fighting in mid-November the Zairean government forces and RDR were either destroyed or forced out of the provinces of North and South Kivu. The Hutu refugees then split, about 800,000 fleeing back into Rwanda and several hundred thousand moving west into the Zairean jungles where many died of starvation and exposure to the elements or fell victim to attacks by various armed parties. Amnesty International claimed as many as 200,000 Rwandese Hutu refugees were massacred by them and the Rwandan Defence Forces-

While Kabila, due to his international contacts and ability to speak multiple language, was clearly the AFDL spokesperson, there was some question about who was the ultimate leader. André Kisase Ngandu, an elder insurgent with revolutionary credentials, was the president of the AFDL's military wing, the National Resistance Council (CNRD). This internal tension between the two men was resolved on 4 January 1997, when Ngandu died under mysterious circumstances in North Kivu. Kabila thereafter appointed himself president of the CNRD as well as retaining his position as spokesperson and head of the political wing.

Once the Kivus were secured the remainder of the First Congo War consisted for the most part of the ADFL and its allies walking and driving across the country to Kinshasa. The population proved to have a deep antipathy towards President Mobutu Sese Seko after decades of corruption and despotism. Most of the demoralized soldiers in the national army either deserted, or joined the ADFL. Men from villages and towns throughout the country spontaneously joined the ADFL's advance. On 17 May 1997, seven months after the rebellion began and a day after Mobutu fled the country, the ADFL marched into Kinshasa and Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The ADFL then became the new national armed forces.