Continued Warfare in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
The Great Lakes Region of Africa
- The Great Lakes region of Africa refers to the area surrounding the African Great Lakes, primarily including countries around Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, and Albert.
- This region typically encompasses Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and sometimes Kenya and South Sudan.
Regional Instability
- Instability after the Rwandan genocide
- The 1994 Rwandan genocide triggered massive instability in the Great Lakes region, especially in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
- Up to 5 million people died during the ensuing conflicts.
- Refugee crisis in Eastern Zaire
- United Nations agencies, particularly the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), along with other humanitarian organizations, set up camps in Eastern Zaire.
- These camps sheltered hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees fleeing Rwanda after the genocide.
- However, the camps also became bases for former Hutu government forces and génocidaires, which complicated the humanitarian situation and regional security.
- The Zairean government under Mobutu Sese Seko allowed the camps but was accused of tolerating, and in some cases supporting, armed Hutu militias operating from within.
- Mobutu’s role and ethnic tensions
- Mobutu and his army were implicated in arming Hutu militias, which worsened ethnic tensions in eastern provinces with mixed Hutu-Tutsi populations, such as North and South Kivu.
- Mobutu’s tolerance or complicity in violence was seen as a way to maintain control by keeping opposition groups fragmented.
