The Democratic Republic of Congo Research Paper

The democratic Republic of Congo - Research Paper ExampleThis paper is a critical evaluation of the countrys history, specifically, of the gird conflict which occurred between 1998 and 2003, as well as of the two most recent general elections that have been conducted in the country. The Second Congo War (1998-2003) The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a country which has had a share of civil conflicts, most importantly, the Second Congo War. This is a war that started in August 1998 and stop in 2003, and at which more than 5 million mass lost their lives (Prunier, 2008). It is believed that a significant number of these victims died as a result of hunger and malnutrition as well as of diseases such as malaria and diarrhea among other(a)s. Some sources term this war as the African World War based on the particular that the fighting was not exclusively among the Congo people. It may be important to state that other countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola, Sudan, C had and Namibia were actively involved in this conflict, thence the reason why some refer it to as the African World War in comparison to WW1 and WW2 whereby different countries formed coalitions to support each other (Prunier, 2008). The root causes of this war were largely based on the events of the first Congo war (Turner, 2007). Zaire, as the country was previously called, was under the authoritarian rule of Mobutu Seseseko for the percentage point between 1965 and 1997, and this had motivated the formation of rebel groups with the intent of overthrowing Mobutu. During this period, too, Rwanda, a neighboring country, experienced a genocide which resulted in the fleeing of members of the Hutu community into the then Zaire, who resided in refugee camps. These people were the prime targets of violence orchestrated by the Tutsis and afterwards fleeing into Zaire, they formed rebel groups, especially Interahamwe, which continued to level attacks on Tutsis in Rwanda. Later, the Zai rian forces joined hands with these militia groups to attack Tutsis in Zaire, and this compelled the Rwandan political sympathies to provide military aid to the antigovernment forces in Zaire in order to remove Mobutu from power, after which someone friendly to them would be installed as president so as to be able to crush the rebel groups (Prunier, 2008). This person happened to be Laurent Kabila, who had been in the forefront for a long while in the fight to remove Mobutu from power. On the other hand, Uganda was interested in the vast resources present in the country and therefore, they also wanted Mobutu to be forbidden of the picture and to achieve this, they joined rebel forces and other politicians in a military campaign to overthrow the then government whose popularity, in the region, was dwindling sidereal day after day (Clark, 2002). In May 1997, Mobutu lost the battle and fled the country, after which Laurent Kabila declared himself as president and changed the count rys name from Zaire to DRC. However, after the successful removal of Mobutu from power, the Rwandan and Ugandan forces remained in the country, which made it difficult for Kabila to exercise authority as president. This was made worse by the fact that Kabilas government was full of Tutsis, whom he had appointed to senior positions such as the chief of staff, his personal secretary, and minister for foreign affairs among others. Due to internal pressure and his doubt that the Rwandan gover