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Agitation for independence in the Congo arose fairly late, only becoming a prominent factor by the mid-1950s. Even this separatist spirit was far more an anti-Belgian movement than one of Congolese nationalism. Following a series of riots and unrest, the Belgians realised they could not maintain control of such a vast country. The Belgians announced on January 27January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 338 days remaining (339 in leap years). Events 1606 Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begin and later ends in their execution on January 31. 1785 The, 1960 that they would relinquish control in six months. The Congo was granted its independence on June 30June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. Events 1651 Battle of Beresteczko ends with Polish victory 1864 Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and, 1960. The country was in a very unstable state—regional tribal leaders held far more power than the central government—and with the departure of the Beligian administrators almost no skilled bureaucrats were left in the country. The first Congolese university graduate was only in 1956, and virtually no-one in the new nation had any idea of how to manage a country of such size.
Parliamentary elections in 1960 produced the Marxist Patrice LumumbaPatrice Emery Lumumba ( July 2, 1925 January 17/ 18, 1961) was the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Path to Prime Minister Lumumba was born in Onalua in the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. He was educated at a missionary as prime minister and pro- Western Joseph Kasavubu as president of the renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Even from this fleeting moment of independence democracy began to unravel. A military coup broke out in the capital and rampant looting began. On July 11th the richest province of the coutnry, Katanga, seceded under Moise Tshombe. To protect Europeans in the country and try to restore order 20,000 UN peacekeepers were sent to the country. Western paramilitaries and mercenaries, often hired by mining companies to protect their interests, also began to pour into the country. In this same period Congo's second richest province, Kasai province, also announced its independence.
Prime Minister Lumumba turned to the USSR for assistance. Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to help, offering advanced weaponry and technical advisors. The United States viewed the Soviet presence as an attempt to take advantage of the situation and gain a proxy state in sub-Saharan Africa. UN forces were ordered to block any shipments of arms into the country. The United States also looked for a way to replace Lumumba as leader. President Kasavubu had clashed with Prime Minister Lumumba and advocated an alliance with the West rather than the Soviets. The U.S. sent weapons and CIA personnel to aid forces allied with Kasavubu and combat the Soviet presence. In December 1960, with U.S. and CIA support, Kasavubu and his loyal Colonel Joseph Mobutu overthrew the government. Lumumba was assassinated by Mobutu soon after; some have alleged that U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the CIA direct orders to assassinate Lumumba, but this has never been confirmed. In Stanleyville, those loyal to the deposed Lumumba set up a rival government under Antoine Gizenga .
Unrest and rebellion plagued the government until 1965, when Lieutenant General Mobutu, by then commander in chief of the national army, seized control of the country and declared himself president for five years. Mobutu quickly consolidated his power and was elected unopposed as president in 1970. Embarking on a campaign of cultural awareness, Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire and required citizens to adopt African names. Relative peace and stability prevailed until 1977 and 1978 when Katangan rebels, based in Angola, launched a series of invasions into the Katanga region. The rebels were driven out with the aid of Belgian paratroopers.
During the 1980s, Zaire remained a one-party state. Although Mobutu successfully maintained control during this period, opposition parties, most notably the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), were active. Mobutu's attempts to quell these groups drew significant international criticism.
As the Cold War came to a close, internal and external pressures on Mobutu increased. In late 1989 and early 1990, Mobutu was weakened by a series of domestic protests, by heightened international criticism of his regime's human rights practices, by a faltering economy, and by government corruption, most notably his massive embezzlement of government funds for personal use. In May 1990 Mobutu agreed to the principle of a multi-party system with elections and a constitution. As details of a reform package were delayed, soldiers in September 1991 began looting Kinshasa to protest their unpaid wages. Two thousand French and Belgian troops, some of whom were flown in on U.S. Air Force planes, arrived to evacuate the 20,000 endangered foreign nationals in Kinshasa.
In 1992, after previous similar attempts, the long-promised Sovereign National Conference was staged, encompassing over 2,000 representatives from various political parties. The conference gave itself a legislative mandate and elected Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo as its chairman, along with Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba , leader of the UDPS, as prime minister. By the end of the year Mobutu had created a rival government with its own prime minister. The ensuing stalemate produced a compromise merger of the two governments into the High Council of Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state and Kengo Wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedly over the next 2 years, they never took place.
By 1996, tensions from the neighboring Rwanda war and genocide had spilled over to Zaire: see History of Rwanda. Rwandan Hutu militia forces ( Interahamwe), who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government, had been using Hutu refugees camps in eastern Zaire as a basis for incursion against Rwanda. These Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. In turn, these Tutsis formed a militia to defend themselves against attacks. When the Zairian government began to escalate its massacres in November 1996, the Tutsi militias erupted in rebellion against Mobutu.
The Tutsi militia was soon joined by various opposition groups and supported by several countries, including Rwanda and Uganda. This coalition, led by Laurent-Desire Kabila, became known as the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL). The AFDL, now seeking the broader goal of ousting Mobutu, made significant military gains in early 1997. Following failed peace talks between Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country, and Kabila marched unopposed to Kinshasa on May 20. Kabila named himself president, consolidated power around himself and the AFDL, and reverted the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kabila demonstrated little ability to manage the problems of his country. He lost his allies and the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC, led by the warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba ), backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops attacked in August 1998, soon after Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia sent some form of force into the DRC, with Zimbabwe and Angola supporting the government. While the six African governments involved in the war signed a ceasefire accord in Lusaka in July 1999, the Congolese rebels did not and the ceasefire broke down within months. Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 by one of his bodyguards, and was succeeded by his son Joseph. Upon taking office Joseph Kabila called for multilateral peace talks to end the war. He partly succeeded in February 2001 when a further peace deal was brokered between Kabila, Rwanda and Uganda leading to the apparent withdrawal of foreign troops. UN peacekeepers, MONUC, arrived in April 2001.
Currently the Ugandans and the MLC still hold a 200 mile wide section of the north of the country; Rwandan forces and its front, the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) control a large section of the east; and government forces or their allies hold the west and south of the country. There were reports that the conflict is being prolonged as a cover for extensive looting of the substantial natural resources in the country (including diamonds, copper, zinc, and coltan). The conflict was reignited in January 2002 by ethnic clashes in the northeast and both Uganda and Rwanda then halted their withdrawal and sent in more troops.
Talks between Kabila and the rebel leaders (held in Sun City) lasted a full six weeks (beginning in April 2002). In June they signed a peace accord in which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003 all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo.
Ethnic clashes in the northeast were still continuing in 2004, especially violence between the Hema and Lendu tribes in the Kivu region of eastern Congo.
See also: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo Civil War
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