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First Congo War
The First Congo War, also known as Africa's First World War, was a Civil war, civil and international military conflict that lasted from 24 October 1996 to 16 May 1997, primarily taking place in Zaire (which was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the conflict). The war resulted in the overthrow of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, who was replaced by rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. This conflict, which also involved multiple neighboring countries, set the stage for the Second Congo War (1998–2003) due to tensions between Kabila and his former allies. By 1996, Zaire was in a state of political and economic collapse, exacerbated by long-standing internal strife and the destabilizing effects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which had led to the influx of refugees and militant groups into the country. The Zairean government under Mobutu, weakened by years of dictatorship and corruption, was unable to maintain control, and the army had deteriorated significa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army For The Liberation Of Rwanda
The Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (; ) was a rebel group largely composed of former members of the Interahamwe and Rwandan Armed Forces. Operating mostly in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the border with Rwanda, it carried out attacks throughout the Second Congo War against forces aligned with Rwanda and Uganda. In 2000, the ALiR agreed to merge with the Hutu resistance movement based in Kinshasa into the new Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). ALiR was largely supplanted by the FDLR by 2001. History The Rwandan genocide in 1994 was largely carried out by the national army, the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and the paramilitary Interahamwe. Following the invasion of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by Paul Kagame, many FAR and Interahamwe members fled across the border into Zaire. During the resulting Great Lakes refugee crisis, these two groups merged and formed into the Army for the Liberation o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Kajuga (militiaman)
Jerry Robert Kajuga (1960 – before March 2007) was national president of the Interahamwe, the group largely responsible for perpetrating the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi people in 1994. Born to a Tutsi father and a Hutu mother, Kajuga concealed his background and presented himself as being of pure Hutu descent. This is notable as Hutu Power extremist groups considered Hutus who married Tutsis to be race traitors,John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry (eds.) (1999). ''Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory'' (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press) pp. 113–115. and Kajuga went to great lengths to conceal his identity. Biography Kajuga was born in Kibungo to a mixed-tribal family: his mother was Hutu and his father was Tutsi but had acquired false Hutu identity papers. He was a young brother of Huss Mugwaneza Kajuga, nicknamed "millionaire of Rukara," the boss of SORIMEX-Rwanda, a company that manufactured tooth pastes and palmolive soap. To avoid any kind of su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonas Savimbi
Jonas Malheiro Sidónio Sakaita Savimbi (; 3 August 1934 – 22 February 2002) was an Angolan revolutionary, politician, and rebel military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( UNITA). UNITA was one of several groups which waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974. Once independence was achieved, it then became an anti-communist group which confronted the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the Angolan Civil War. Savimbi had extensive contact with anti-communist activists in the United States, including Jack Abramoff and was one of the leading anti-communist voices in the world. Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002. Early life Jonas Malheiro Sidónio Sakaita Savimbi was born in Munhango, Bié Province, a small town on the Benguela Railway, and raised in Chilesso, in the same province. Savimbi's father, Lote, was a stationmaster on Angola's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omar Al-Bashir
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Head of state of Sudan, Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in 2019 Sudanese coup d'état, a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. Al-Bashir came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in 1989 Sudanese coup d'état, a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced President Ahmed al-Mirghani as head of state. He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party (Sudan), National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donatien Mahele Lieko Bokungu
Donatien "Marc" Mahele Lieko Bokungu (April 14, 1941 – May 16, 1997) was a prominent Zairean general who served as the last army chief during the long reign of Mobutu Sese Seko."Foes of Congo Leader Disrupt Funeral Service." ''New York Times'', June 13, 1997. Accessed on May 6, 2008. Biography Born in 1941, Mahele, a by trade,"Zaire: IRIN Briefing Part III, 02/27/97"United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga ( ; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997), often shortened to Mobutu Sese Seko or Mobutu and also known by his initials MSS, was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the first and only president of Zaire from 1971 to 1997. Previously, Mobutu served as the second president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1971. He also served as the fifth chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity from 1967 to 1968. During the Congo Crisis, Mobutu, serving as Chief of Staff of the Army and supported by Belgium and the United States, deposed the democratically elected government of left-wing nationalist Patrice Lumumba in 1960. Mobutu installed a government that arranged for Lumumba's execution in 1961, and continued to lead the country's armed forces until he took power directly in a second coup in 1965. To consolidate his power, he established the Popular Movement of the Revolution as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sudan People's Liberation Army
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the military force of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key participant of the Second Sudanese Civil War and the subsequent independence of South Sudan. It was led by John Garang, who died in 2005 and was succeeded by Salva Kiir. As of 2010, the SPLA was divided into divisions of 10,000–14,000 soldiers. Following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, the last remaining large and well-equipped militia, the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), under General Paulino Matiep, signed an agreement with Kiir known as the Juba Declaration, which amalgamated the two forces under the SPLA banner. Following South Sudan's independence in 2011, Kiir became President and the SPLA became the new republic's regular army. In May 2017 there was a restructure and the SPLA took on the name of South Sudan Defenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AFDL
The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (), also known by the French acronym AFDL, was a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese dissidents, disgruntled minority groups, and nations that toppled Mobutu Sese Seko and brought Laurent-Désiré Kabila to power in the First Congo War. Although the group was successful in overthrowing Mobutu, the alliance fell apart after Kabila did not agree to be dictated by his foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda, which marked the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998. Background By the middle of 1996, the situation in eastern Zaire was simmering with tension. Following the Rwandan genocide in 1994, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hutus had fled across the border into Zaire where they settled in large refugee camps. Many of those responsible for the genocide, the former Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and ''interahamwe'' militia, used the anonymity offered by the camps to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mai-Mai
The term Mai-Mai or Mayi-Mayi refers to any kind of community-based militia group active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that is formed to defend local communities and territory against other armed groups. Most were formed to resist the invasion of Rwandan forces and Rwanda. Groups that fall under the umbrella term "Mai-Mai" include armed forces led by warlords, traditional tribal elders, village heads and politically motivated resistance fighters. Because Mai Mai have only the most tenuous internal cohesion, different Mai-Mai groups allied themselves with a variety of domestic and foreign government and guerrilla groups at different times. The term Mai-Mai refers not to any particular movement, affiliation or political objective but to a broad variety of groups. The name comes from the Swahili word for water, '' maji''. Militia members sprinkle themselves with water to protect themselves from bullets.E.F. Kisangani, S.F. BobbHistorical Dictionary of the Democrati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congolese National Liberation Front
The Congolese National Liberation Front (; FLNC) was a Congolese left-wing armed opposition group and political party that was founded by rebels of Katangese origin and composed of former members of the Katangese Gendarmerie. It was active mainly in Angola and Zaire during the 1970s. The FLNC was formed in Angola under the leadership of Nathaniel Mbumba, with the goal of overthrowing Mobutu Sese Seko, the leader of Zaire. The FLNC is best known for its two attempted invasions of Katanga Province (renamed Shaba) in Zaire in 1977 and 1978. These incursions, which threatened Mobutu's regime, sparked two international wars, Shaba I and Shaba II, further complicating the Angolan Civil War. The FLNC became a member of the political life of Zaire after the year 1991, and then later a member of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Foundation The FLNC originated as the Katangese Gendarmerie, the military of the secessionist State of Katanga during the Congo Crisis. After the def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allied Democratic Forces
The Allied Democratic Forces (; abbreviated ADF) is a Ugandan Islamist rebel group based in western Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government and the United States. Originally based in western Uganda, it has expanded into the neighbouring Congo. Most ADF fighters are Ugandan Muslims from the Baganda and Basoga ethnic groups. Since the late 1990s, the ADF has operated in the Congo's North Kivu province near the border with Uganda. While repeated military offensives against the ADF have severely affected it, the ADF has been able to regenerate because its recruitment and financial networks have remained intact. Some of the attacks it has been blamed for also appear to have been committed by other rebel groups as well as the Congolese Armed Forces. From 2015, the ADF experienced a radicalisation after the imprisonment of its leader Jamil Mukulu and the rise of Musa Baluku in his place. From 2019, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
