Rwanda and DRCongo are two examples of conflicts that were causes of conflict-induced, forced migration.Conflict-induced displacement, a type of forced migration, is when people are forced to leave their region, because of violence, armed conflict, and/or discrimination of religion, race, social group or political opinion. Both of the countries mentioned have similarities and differences between the causes of unrest, and the long term and short term causes of the conflict.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, short DR Congo or DRC, is a country situated in Central Africa with a long history of civil unrest. The official language is French, it is supposed to be an ethnically neutral language, due to the many ethnic groups found in the DRCongo. During the Belgian colonization French and Dutch were both official languages but French was more widely spoken. Today about 30% of the population speak French either as their first or second language. The Belgian colonization played an important role in the history of DR Congo. In 1884-1885 at the Berlin West Africa King Leopold II got the rights for the Congo. The many natural resources of the Congo, such as rubber, were a way for the Belgian king to increase his wealth, but it led to brutality against the local population. The rubber brought fame to King Leopold but the Congolese population, still to this day, feel like they do not get recognized enough. The DRCongo suffered a long period of suppression, corruption and poor leadership. Even after they gained independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960, they were still described as unstable. Colonialism, however was not the only longtime cause of the weakening of the country, others were the cold war and the democratic transition of the DRC...
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... war on the other hand wasn’t a corrupt government it had mostly to do with the conflicts of the two main ethnic groups. After the Belgian colonization more than 100,000 Tutsis fled to the surrounding countries, due to violence and reprisal between the two groups. Then in 1990 the RPF(Rwandan Patriotic Front) a group existing mostly of Tutsi refugees that fled over thirty years ago invaded Rwanda. In 1990 political tension came up, also due to the bad harvest, following the bad weather that year. The war stopped in August 1993. Then another short term effect occurred when president Habyarimana's jet was shot down killing all passengers, including the president. President Habyarimana returned home after negotiations in Dar es Salaam, and the Hutus suspected the Tutsis of the President's assassination. That was the beginning of the three month long Rwandan genocide.
...abor to get what he wanted, ivory and rubber. Leopold was able to colonize and pillage Congo for its resources during the Scramble for Africa through forced labor. The quote that sums up my essay and the book is best described at the end of chapter 15. Massacring huge numbers of natives will eventually frighten the survivors into gathering rubber. This shows the intentions of forced labor by the Force Publique and the reason for the population drop in Congo during Leopold’s rule.
King Leopold and his allies’ had great power over the Congo, which he soon exploited for its large supply of rubber. As said in the King Leopold’s Ghost, “For Europ...
The land Leopold had obtained was about eighty times larger than that of Belgium itself. Plus, Leopold was proclaimed the “sovereign” ruler of all the Congo Free Sta...
Sudan, which is located in northeast Africa, is ranked number 190 based on the amount of migrants per thousand people with a total of -4.44 migrants per thousand people. For roughly 12 years (from 2001-2013), Sudan has faced many challenges that push it’s people out of the land and pull them towards other places. These factors are known as push and pull factors. Even though there are many challenges that come with immigration, the results are more rewarding than what they would have been in Sudan. After migrating out of Sudan, these Sudanese migrants also face long-term consequences because of their decision to move.
(Countries at Risk). The genocide in Rwanda began when the tension between the Hutus tribe and the Tutsis tribe steadily increased. After the European country, Belgium, colonized Rwanda, they gave more power to
To find the cause of the Rwandan genocide, many people had tried to follow the path of history from the colonialism of Rwanda to the Rwandan genocide. Belgium wanted to expand just like other powerful nations like Great Britain, Spain, and France due to the lack of space and resources provided to each nation in Europe. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gamma, many European ventured towards Africa to colonize territories. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Belgium had colonized the territory of Rwanda. After colonization, they left the Tutsis in charge as opposed to Hutus because of the fact that the Belgians thought Tutsis had a Caucasian ancestry. After the Rwandan independence, power was given to the Hutus. After the power was given to the Hutus, the Hutus took revenge on the Tutsis which resulted in some killings. In the movie, Hotel Rwanda, President Habyarimana was killed. The killing was blamed on the Tutsis which caused the enraged Hutus to start the Rwandan Genocide. Although the initial cause of the genocide could be Belgian Imperialism, in the movie it was actually the killing...
Since the late 1800’s, almost all of Africa had been under European colonial rule, but this changed drastically in 1960. Sixteen African nations gained their independence that year, including the former Belgian Congo, which became the Democratic Republic of the Congo on June 30. One of the key personalities that made this possible was Patrice Lumumba, who experienced widespread support in gaining independence and became the first Prime Minister of the DROC. However, he lost much of this support once he was in office, and lasted fewer than 200 days. Lumumba’s ability to communicate was a key reason for his success and failure.
Over the course of human history, many believe that the “Congo Free State”, which lasted from the 1880s to the early 1900s, was one of the worst colonial states in the age of Imperialism and was one of the worst humanitarian disasters over time. Brutal methods of collecting rubber, which led to the deaths of countless Africans along with Europeans, as well as a lack of concern from the Belgian government aside from the King, combined to create the most potent example of the evils of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Congo colonial experience, first as the Congo Free State then later as Belgian Congo, was harmful to that region of Africa both then and now because of the lack of Belgian and International attention on the colony except for short times, the widespread economic exploitation of the rubber resources of the region, and the brutal mistreatment and near-genocide of the Congolese by those in charge of rubber collecting.
It is widely debated why exactly King Leopold decided to conquer the Congo, but the general consensus seems to be that it was out of the belief that “the highlands of the Congo may be as rich in gold as the mountains of the western slope of the American Continent” (Stead). In the mid-1870s, the King hired Henry Stanley, who was familiar with many parts of Africa, to help him go about conquering. During the following years Stanley stayed in Africa, talking various tribes into signing over their lands and rights. After this was completed the King officially took over the Congo, renaming it the Congo Free State. This was especially ironic because all natives of the country were either forced to give up their way of life in exchange for virtual slavery in the ivory trade, agriculture, or the rubber traffic, or die trying to escape fate. Leopold was undeterred by the amount of suffering and death in the Congo, brought on by his rule. Belgian soldiers and officials were known for their cruelty in their methods to make, and then keep, Congo natives wo...
After learning of Lord Stanley’s expedition through the Congo, and his offer to work for any interested nation King Leopold saw an opening for Belgium in the Congo. Having an interest in acquiring wealth and increasing Belgium...
The Rwandan genocide occurred due to the extreme divide between two main groups that were prevalent in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi. When Rwanda was first settled, the term Tutsi was used to describe those people who owned the most livestock. After the Germans lost control over their colonies after World War I, the Belgians took over and the terms Hutu and Tutsi took on a racial role (Desforges). It soon became mandatory to have an identification card that specified whether or not an individual was a Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa (a minority group in Rwanda). The Tutsi soon gained power through the grant of leadership positions by the Belgians. Later on when Rwanda was tying to gain indepe...
Between the months of April and July in 1994 approximately one million people were killed in Rwanda. There are three ethnic groups in Rwanda, Hutu, Tutsi, and Aboriginal Twa. The genocide occurred between two different groups, the Hutu and Tutsi people. The Hutu composed close to 85% of the population while the minority Tutsi people make up approximately 14% with the Twa people composing the remaining 1%. The Republic of Rwanda like most African nations has a history of colonization from different European countries with different and conflicting ideas of governance and how a colony should be developed and used. It can be argued that many of the problems occurring in all African nations stem from previous colonization and subsequent exploitation. “ A Brief history” UN.org n.p. n.d. Web. 16 April 2014.
They killed almost one million people within a three-month span (Uvin, Peter. 2009). This number is crazy. The Hutu took every chance possible to kill off the Tutu. This is all because of religion and beliefs. Thus, was the main reason for the civil war. The Hutu believed that their belief was right and the Tutsi’s was not (Fujii, Lee Ann. 2008). The government was part of the Hutu religion and was a lot stronger then the Tutsi people. This leads the Natural Law Theory. The strong gets want they want and weak don’t. Therefore, the Hutu took advantage of Tutsi population. They blocked off food and resources and made it hard for poverty areas of Rwanda to survive (Fujii, Lee Ann. 2008). The government controlled everything and left many of the rebels out to dry and defend for themselves. This is morally wrong and should not be accepted. The only safe places were with the UN, and the Red Cross but as the months went on they soon left as well. The tragedy of this event and 3 months must be one of the most terrible events in history. It was ignored by the rest of the world as they acted like the Rwanda population were not worth
When Congo gained its independence from Belgium it struggled to develop and remained a weak state. There were many factors that led to Congo being unable to progress and create strong institutions within its countries borders. “Political divisions along the ethnic lines were prevalent, though this fact could be misleading. Ethnicity became the primary source of political mobilization i...
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.