Rally For Congolese Democracy - Development

Development

In 1997 Laurent-Désiré Kabila was installed as President of the DRC following the victory by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) in the First Congo War, with heavy support from the governments of Uganda and Rwanda. However, the ethnic tensions in eastern DRC did not disappear. Thousands of Hutu militants who had taken part in the Rwandan genocide and been forced to flee into the DRC maintained a low intensity war with the invading Rwandan army and their Banyamulenge co-ethnics living in the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. By February 1998 the Kivus were engulfed in ethnic warfare. Banyamulenge troops based in the town of Bukavu who belonged to the ADFL mutinied as tensions increased. The mutiny caused a souring of the relationship between Kabila and his Rwandan and Ugandan allies.

In early August 1998 the newly formed RCD led by president Ernest Wamba dia Wamba took the town of Goma and began a campaign against Kabila, marking the beginning of the Second Congo War. The RCD was formed by Uganda and Rwanda after they grew dissatisfied with the government. The core of the RCD was composed of former ADFL members, including many Banyamulenge who already tended to ally themselves with Rwanda against the anti-Tutsi forces in the region. Nevertheless, the Kabila forces managed to halt the RCD advance with the assistance of outside states such as Angola and Zimbabwe, marking the onset of a full-scale regional conflict.

The South African Institute of International Affairs reported in 1999 that former FAZ generals Kpama Baramoto Kata and General Nzimbi Ngbale Kongo wa Bassa had been responsible for mobilising 30,000 disillusioned FAC troops, 'garrisoned at Kitona,' to join the rebellion.

During this period Congolese living in the Kivus increasingly came to view the RCD as a brutal oppressor. Rwanda had nearly complete control of the organization, while the RCD continued to increase taxation with no noticeable improvement in infrastructure or basic services. The RCD's undisciplined troops, along with those of other armed groups, were also responsible for acts of brutality against the population. Kivutians also criticize the dominance of Banyamulenge.