The Kivu conflict began as an armed conflict between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Hutu Power group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in 2004. The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo also became involved in the conflict. Until March 2009, the main combatant group against the FARDC was the rebel Tutsi forces formerly under the command of Laurent Nkunda (National Congress for the Defence of the People, CNDP).
CNDP is sympathetic to the Banyamulenge in Eastern Congo, an ethnic Tutsi group, and to the Tutsi-dominated government of Rwanda. It was opposed by the FDLR, by the DRC's army, and by United Nations forces.
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Famous quotes containing the word conflict:
“The white man regards the universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths: personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values, the things to live for. This outlook on life divides the universe into a host of individual little entities which cannot help being in constant conflict thereby hastening the approach of the hour of their final destruction.”
—Policy statement, 1944, of the Youth League of the African National Congress. pt. 2, ch. 4, Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope (1988)