Editing History of Rwanda (section)

===First and Second Congo Wars===
{{See also|First Congo War|Second Congo War}}
In order to protect the country against the Hutu Interahamwe forces, which had fled to Eastern Zaire, RPF forces invaded Zaire in 1996, following talks by Kagame with US officials earlier the same year. In this invasion Rwanda allied with [[Laurent Kabila]], a progressist revolutionary in Eastern Zaire who had been a foe of Zaire's long-time dictator, [[Mobutu Sese Seko]]. In addition to Rwandan forces, Laurent Kabila's AFDL (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo) forces were also supported by Ugandan forces, with whom Kagame had trained in the late 1980s, which then invaded Eastern Zaire from the northeast. This became known as the [[First Congo War]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

[[File:Second Congo War Africa map en.svg|thumb|Belligerents of the Second Congo War]]
In this war, militarized Tutsi elements in the South Kivu area of Zaire, known as Banyamulenge to disguise their original Rwandan Tutsi heritage, allied with the Tutsi RDF forces against the Hutu refugees in the North Kivu area, which included the Interahamwe militias.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Hall|editor-first1=John A.|editor-last2=Malešević|editor-first2=Siniša|title=Nationalism and War|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9781107034754|page=312|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4h6yjCpZvfEC&q=first+congo+war+tutsi+elements+in+south+kivu&pg=PA312|access-date=30 March 2017}}</ref>

In the midst of this conflict, Kabila, whose primary intent had been to depose Mobutu, moved his forces to Kinshasa, and in 1997, the same year Mobutu Sese Seko died of prostate cancer, Kabila captured Kinshasa and then became president of Zaire, which he then renamed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With Kabila's success in the Congo, he no longer desired an alliance with the Tutsi-RPF Rwandan army and the Ugandan forces, and in August 1998 ordered both the Ugandans and Tutsi-Rwandan army out of the DRC. However, neither Kagame's Rwandan Tutsi forces nor Museveni's Ugandan forces had any intention of leaving the Congo, and the framework of the [[Second Congo War]] was laid.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

During the Second Congo War, Tutsi militias among the Banyamulenge in the Congo province of Kivu desired to annex themselves to Rwanda (now dominated by Tutsi forces under the Kagame government). Kagame also desired this, both to increase the resources of Rwanda by adding those of the Kivu region, and also to add the Tutsi population, which the Banyamulenge represented, back into Rwanda, thereby reinforcing his political base and protecting the indigenous Tutsis living there, who had also suffered massacres from the Interhamwe.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

In the Second Congo War, Uganda and Rwanda attempted to wrest much of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Kabila's forces, and nearly succeeded. However, the DRC being a member of the SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) organisation, President Laurent Kabila called this regional organisation to the rescue. Armies were sent to aid Kabila, most notably those of Angola and Zimbabwe. These armies were able to beat back Kagame's Rwandan-Tutsi advances and the Ugandan forces.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

In the great conflict between 1998 and 2002, during which Congo was divided into three parts, multiple opportunistic militias, called [[Mai-Mai|Mai Mai]], sprang up, supplied by the arms dealers around the world that profit in [[small arms proliferation|small arms trading]], including the US, Russia, China, and other countries. Over 5.4 million people died in the conflict, as well as the majority of animals in the region.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

Laurent Kabila was assassinated in the DRC (Congo) in 2001, and was succeeded by his son, [[Joseph Kabila]]. The latter was chosen unanimously by the political class because of the role he played in the army, being the "de facto' officer in charge of the well trained batailions that defeated the Mobutu army and were fighting alongside SADC coalition forces. Joseph speaks fluent [[French language|French]], [[English language|English]] and [[Swahili language|Swahili]], one of the four national languages of the DRC. He studied in [[Tanzania]] and [[Uganda]] in his earlier years. He completed his military training in [[China]]. After serving 5 years as the transitional government president, he was freely-elected in the Congo to be president, in 2006, largely on the basis of his support in the Eastern Congo.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Kabila |access-date=Sep 3, 2024}}</ref>

Ugandan and Rwandan forces within Congo began to battle each other for territory, and Congolese [[Mai-Mai|Mai Mai]] militias, most active in the South and North Kivu provinces (in which most refugees were located) took advantage of the conflict to settle local scores and widen the conflict, battling each other, Ugandan and Rwandan forces, and even Congolese forces.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

The war was ended when, under Joseph Kabila's leadership, a ceasefire was signed and the all-inclusive Sun City (South Africa) talks were convened to decide on a two years transition period and the organisation of free and fair elections.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}

Rwandan RPF troops finally left Congo in 2002, leaving a wake of disease and malnutrition that continued to kill thousands every month. However, Rwandan rebels continue to operate (as of May 2007) in the northeast Congo and Kivu regions. These are claimed to be remnants of Hutu forces that cannot return to Rwanda<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/fdlr.htm|title=Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR)(Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda)|access-date=2007-06-04|date=2004-01-23|publisher=Global Security.org, Alexandria, US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714133347/http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/fdlr.htm|archive-date=2007-07-14|url-status=live}}</ref> without facing genocide charges, yet are not welcomed in Congo and are pursued by DRC troops.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22739&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo|title=Ban Ki-moon condemns massacre of civilians in DR Congo|access-date=2007-05-23|date=2007-05-23|publisher=UN News Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070617120006/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22739&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo|archive-date=2007-06-17|url-status=live}}</ref> In the first 6 months of 2007, over 260,000 civilians were displaced.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22692&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo|title=Dangers increase for displaced in eastern DR Congo, UN says|access-date=2007-05-25|date=2007-05-25|publisher=UN News Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070617101154/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22692&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo|archive-date=2007-06-17|url-status=live}}</ref> Congolese Mai Mai rebels also continue to threaten people and wildlife.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070523-gorillas-hostage.html|title=The Endangered Gorillas "held hostage" by rebels in African Park|access-date=2007-05-23|date=2007-05-23|publisher=National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., Kigali|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070526081822/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070523-gorillas-hostage.html|archive-date=2007-05-26|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although a large scale effort at disarming militias has succeeded, with the aid of the UN troops, the last militias are only being disarmed in 2007. However, fierce confrontations in the northeast regions of the Congo between local tribes in the Ituri region, initially uninvolved with the Hutu-Tutsi conflict but drawn into the Second Congo War, still continue.{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}