As the United States focuses its humanitarian aid on countries that are strategically important to its geopolitical goals, the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to devolve into one of the most brutal conflicts right now. With millions of people displaced and killed from ongoing fighting that has lasted over 20 years, Congo’s situation has only worsened. Western powers must begin to turn their attention to a region that has been historically ignored for centuries in the name of a conflict that may throw the entire continent of Africa into disarray.
The modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo was named a Belgian colony in 1885, given to King Leopold II out of the Berlin Conference and ending the “scramble for Africa” by Western powers. However, unlike every other Western power in the region, Leopold treated the landmass as his own as opposed to a colony of Belgium’s. Leopold began his infamous reign of apartheid, exploiting Congo’s land and its people for the valuable rubber found in the nation. The ruthless leader enslaved millions, with half of the population (more than 10 million people) dying of malnutrition, brutal torture, and mass disease throughout his reign. As angry Europeans took to the street to protest the brutal regime in the early 1900s, Leopold was forced to turn the colony over to the country of Belgium until 1960 when the DRC finally gained independence.
Paradoxically, the nation’s independence thrust it into another period of instability, with democratically-elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumuba overthrown in a military coup just four months after his inauguration. The dictatorship that followed the coup was backed by both the United States and Belgium and led by tyrant Joseph Desire Mobutu. After renaming the country “Zaire,” Mobutu began his reign. Despite periods of instability, the regime and the country remained relatively intact-- that is, until a regional disaster sent the country spiraling into chaos.
In 1994, the Rwandan genocide shattered the region’s dynamic. Over the course of just one hundred days, 800,000 innocent Tutsis were murdered by the Hutu government with the help of the Interahamwe militia and the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (Hutu rebel/terror groups). The genocide was a systematic attempt at ethnic cleansing made by the Hutu minority who felt as though the Tutsis had received special treatment during Belgian colonization, soaking up the little economic growth the country attracted. Hutu extremist groups barricaded highway exits, rallied around borders, and individually tracked down Tutsi families in hopes of exterminating them. Lists were made of “common Tutsi features,” citizens were forced to carry around ID cards with their ethnicity written on them, and anti-Tutsi propaganda flooded the media.
The Rwandan genocide forced thousands of Tutsis and residing Hutus to flee, crossing into several neighboring countries. Congo, with the help of the UN, began setting up refugee camps for the two million people who fled to the tiny country. However, after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (the Tutsi militia) won the civil war and ended the genocide, the camps in the eastern region of Congo became de facto army bases for exiled Interahamwe militia members. As they gained power in 1996, two years after the initial genocide ended, Hutu militant groups began to terrorize Congo’s local population and the Tutsis that resided there.
In response, Congolese Banyamulenge (Tutsis residing in eastern Congo) led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila banded together to exile the Hutus from the country, marking the beginning of the First Congo War. A joint army of Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers backed Kabila in his efforts to expel the Hutus and helped him overthrow Mobutu’s government, putting an end to the 36-year dictatorship. By September of 1997, Kabila had become the President of the newly-named Democratic Republic of Congo. Though the number is unclear, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people died in the bloody conflict.
Kabila’s rule was characterized by a constant power struggle between Ugandan and Rwandan diplomats fighting for power in the DRC’s government, leading Kaliba to force them out. When tensions re-erupted between the Tutsis and the Hutus in the town of Goma in Congo, Kaliba allowed the Hutu militias to regroup and gain power in Congo. The region erupted into further chaos as Kaliba began to work with the Hutus in order to force out the Tutsis and remaining Rwandan soldiers that still occupied the region. Rwanda and Uganda invaded the country yet again in 1998 to assist the Tutsis but were met with Kaliba, backed by Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Chad, Libya, and Sudan. To bolster their power, the joint forces sponsored the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), an anti-Kaliba terrorist group in eastern Congo.
Fighting continued despite attempts at peace summits and ceasefires, often because parties did not sign or violated agreements. Even after the UN deployed peacekeeping troops in 1999 and increased that number by 500-fold in 2000 to enforce a ceasefire, fighting continued.
The brutal war began to wane in 2001 when Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard and his son, Joseph Kabila II took his place. Though violence continued, Rwanda was put under strain by sanctions from the international community and the RCD began to lose manpower. While Kabila secured the Western region of Congo, Rwanda became increasingly worn out and signed a peace deal on July 30, 2002, which promised the withdrawal of all 20,000 troops from the country.
Uganda soon followed on September 6, 2002, with the Luanda Agreement and the Second Congo War officially ended with the 2003 Global and All-Inclusive Agreement between the DRC’s government and many of the “main” rebel groups within Congo. The Second Congo War was brutal, taking between one and five million lives over the course of just five years.
The DRC has not recovered, with UN reports consistently warning of dire human rights atrocities. The modern-day instability mainly stems from the failures of the “Transitional Government” established after the second war. The Transitional Government hoped to unite rebel groups and the government to instate fair elections and provide the country with a centralized body of power. However, after elections were pushed back a year due to unrest, different rebel groups began to retreat into aggression. Rebel groups, like the DRC, maintained their own militias and administrations separate from that of the Transitional Government. The instability stemming from governmental disarray has created a power vacuum in eastern Congo, where many rebel groups and militias fight for power. Kaliba II has reportedly sponsored certain groups in hopes of suppressing anti-government sentiment amongst other groups
Congo has some of Africa’s most robust natural resources, with diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, and the agricultural potential to feed almost the entire population. Corrupt members of the country’s official security force often find themselves at war with each other and rebel militias over control of these resources. While over 120 militant groups wage war in eastern Congo, Kaliba II has delayed elections and even deliberately sponsored substantial acts of violence in order to do so. Protesters have taken to the street several times only to be tortured into silence and UN investigators have been executed. As a result of the crumbling state, 19 million Congolese are in urgent need of assistance, 4.5 are displaced from their homes, and 2 million children risk starvation.
**UPDATE: A volcano has just erupted in eastern Congo and the region is in urgent need assistance**
How to Help:
Save the Children (works with children suffering from malnutrition)
International Rescue Committee (has worked with Congo since 1996 and assisted 2.7 million people ever since. They continue to provide humanitarian assistance, particularly targeting displacement and disease)
CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE ABOUT SENDING MORE AID! Learn how to do so here: https://borgenproject.org/how-to-help-people-in-congo/
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