The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more then 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country everyday. The people of Congo are being pushed farther into poverty and starvation can't handle the fighting for very much longer. I propose that the solution to the post-Civil War violence in Congo is to rid the country of all foreign nations and their problems, namely the Rwandans, and to get combatants inside of the country to hold a summit and find a peaceful and fair resolution to the problem, with a superpower like the United States acting as host and mediator. Once all quarrels are amended, the Congolese can start to focus on a economic strategy for rebuilding the country.
Congo's Civil War began on November 2nd, 1998 when Laurent Kabila tried to drive out Rwandan militants who helped him overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko.2 Sese Seko came into power in 1966 when he led a rebellion to overthrow the government of Patrice Lumumbra. Sese Seko led to Africanizing of the country by requiring that all citizens drop their Christan names, and by renaming all the geographical locations with more African names.3 During the 1980's Sese Seko's government received support from the United States, in response to communism's rising popularity in Africa. Because of the misuse of the funds and wealth generated by natural resources, the rich got richer and the poor fell farther into poverty. Sese Seko abused Congo's natural resources and eventually helped lead the country into a state of economic ruin. In 1997 Sese Seko was overthrown by Laurent Kabila. When Kabila took over the country it was in terrible condition but he did nothing to try and improve the state of the nation. When he tried to expel the same Rwandan rebels that helped him come to power, he started a war that eventually led to his death. Many various ethnic and rebel groups inside of Congo who relied on the Rwandans for protection joined the uprising.4 Africans inside and around Congo chose s...
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... Farah, Global Insights. New York: Macmillan McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company, 1994.
Endnotes
1 “Quick Guide: DR Congo,” BBC News. Updated Mar. 07 2005. BBC News, Accessed 06 March 2005,
2 “Congo Civil War,” GlobalSecurity.Org. Updated Feb. 11 2005. GlobalSecurity.org, Accessed 06 March 2005
3 “Mubutu Sese Seko,” Encyclopedia. Updated 2005. Infoplease, Accessed 06 March 2005,
4 “Congo Civil War,” GlobalSecurity.Org. Updated Feb. 11 2005. GlobalSecurity.org, Accessed 06 March 2005
5 Ibid
6 Ibid
7 Ibid
8 Ibid
9 Ibid
10 “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” Conflict in Congo, PBS, October 22, 1998. Transcript. Accessed 06 March 2005
11 Garten, Jeffrey E, “Don't Just Throw Money At The World's Poor” BusinessWeek, March 7, 2005. 12.
Murder, destruction, mayhem, three things the people of Kinshasa, Congo know too well. This city was started with Eurocentric ideals embedded into the very nature of the land. Originally named Leopoldville, claimed in the name of King Leopold II of Belgium by a British explorer known as Henry Stanley.1 The colony was established as the personal property of the King at the Berlin Conference in 1884. By 1885 King Leopold II had established the Congo as the new Congo Free State.2 The Belgian government seized control from Leopold II at the request of other nations. Leopold II was so destructive during his reign of the Congo, that Belgium needed to take control subsequently renaming the Free State to the Belgian Congo.3 During his rule, King Leopold II killed millions of Congolese from either work exhaustion or from any of the mass murders performed by the king’s men.4 The citizens of Belgium were unaware of how severe conditions were becoming in the Congo. Since only a handful of Belgians visited the Congo, very few spoke publicly against King Leopold II’s conquests. For example Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness, which discusses horrific conditions the natives faced from the point of view of a European steamboat captain floating down the river.5 Conrad wanted to show the readers the internal struggle the young captain faced. How can he be loyal to a King and country that treats its ‘citizens’ like lesser beings?6 Well in 1908, the Congo officially became the one and only colony under Belgium’s rule. This new administration had similar beliefs of power and colonization as King Leopold II but with less bloodshed. When the government seized power, Leopoldville became a central hub for European affairs.
...trage about violence in the Congo, Belgian administrators took a census in 1924, as they were concerned about the shortage of available workers. The same year, the official committee of the National Colonial Congress of Belgium declared: “We run the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and disappear,” that the Congo state would be nothing more than a desert without the native population.
...erpetrators. This sort of weakness in their government is what ruins attempts to prevent atrocities and protect civilians. With this much to fix on their plate, they need to start getting help from other countries and providing help of their own in order to fix the state it’s gotten into and help its people. Because they mistreated the M23 rebels and did not stick to the promises that they made in the peace treaty, they caused them to rebel again and intern damned their people. With a suffering army and government state they are useless in stopping the rebels. The Congolese government needs to get help with from neighboring countries in order to fix some of their piling problems. They need to start assisting the groups that are helping their civilians dealing with the violence and charging those perpetrators responsible for the heinous acts against the population.
April 7th 1994 marks the start of on of the worst things ever to happen to human beings, The Rwandan Genocide. It is known that over 800’000 Rwandans were massacred, 800’000 is 20% of the countries population, over 70% of the tutsis were brutally murdered within the 100 day genocide of Rwanda. Both Hutus and tutsis were killed and murdered at the hands of their neighbours machetes. During this compare and contrast essay I will discuss the long and short term causes of both the Rwandan and Congolese Conflicts. I will also discuss how the natives of these two countries were forced to leave their homes and migrate in seek of aid. The genocide was between April 7th and July 15th 1994, therefore it is known as the 100 day war. The genocide or in context the Rwandan Civil War was fought between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Ongoing conflicts began in 1990 between the hutu-led government and the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front). The RPF was created in 1987 by the Tutsi refugee diaspora in Uganda. The first Tutsi refugees fled to Uganda to escape ethnic purges in the beginning of 1959.
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.
... attention allowed economic exploitation in the Congo and its people devastated by human rights abuses, and even today the lack of international attention has caused many conflicts in and around the Congo. The economic exploitation of the Congo during colonial times robbed the country of wealth which could have been used to develop the land, and the lack of wealth has contributed to Congo’s poor standing in the world today. Lastly, the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State contributed to economic and political troubles during the colonial period and has continued into the present day, as human rights abuses are still prevalent in that region of Africa. Due to the lack of international attention, economic exploitation, and human rights abuses, the Congo Free State was harmful to the Congo region of Africa and its legacy continues to harm that region of Africa.
Stearns, Jason. K. Dancing in the glory of monsters: The collapse of the Congo and the Great
The writer behind “Singers Solution to World Poverty” advocates that U.S. citizens give away the majority of their dispensable income in order to end global suffering. Peter Singer makes numerous assumptions within his proposal about world poverty, and they are founded on the principle that Americans spend too much money on items and services that they do not need.
According to BBC News, The Congo’s troubles started back in the early 19th century, when Belgium colonized the Congo and enslaved its citizens. It wasn’t until the 1960’s when the Congo finally gained its independence, however Joseph Mobutu came to power in 1965 and let the nation (renamed Zaire) fall apart due to his exploitation of the land’s abundance of natural resources (BBC News). In 1994, the Genocide in Rwanda occurred, were the dominant Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda (ECI). According to the ICRtoP, the exiled Hutu extremists found refuge in Zaire and allied themselves with Mobutu. Rwanda and Uganda later invaded Zaire that year in what was known as the “First Congo War”, resulting in the overthrow of Mobutu, the installment of Laurent-Desire Kabila (who renamed the country to the DRC), and ...
One can easily note the physical and sexual violence brought upon the people (black and white) of Congo after independence, but we must locate the other forms of violence in order to bring the entire story of Patrice Lumumba to light. The director’s attempt at bringing the story of Patrice Lumumba to the “silver screen” had political intentions.
In Africa there have been many wars and problems with poverty as well as famine that lead to war. One specific war was the civil war in Congo also known as The Great War of Africa. The war in Congo lasted from August 1998 to July 2003 and left thousands of people dead or injured. The war started because of issues in the DRC which stands for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The war was a long and terrifying war that ended when the transitional government of Democratic Republic of Congo took power. Africas unfriendliness has continued with the Lords Resistance Army Insurgencies and The Kivu as well as Ituri conflicts. The civil war in congo has made a huge impact on the people of africa and how they live today.
This is a tale of horror and tragedy in the Congo, beginning with the brutal and exploitative regime of King Leopold II of Belgium, and culminating with the downfall of one of Africa’s most influential figures, Patrice Lumumba. The Congo is but one example of the greater phenomenon of European occupation of Africa. The legacy of this period gives rise to persistent problems in the Congo and throughout Africa. Understanding the roots and causes of this event, as focused through the lense of the Congo, is the subject of this paper.
Prior to 1960, Belgium and their King, Leopold ruled the Congo region. They held great interests in the rubber industry and created harsh labor camps that exploited the people. That is why after gaining independence in 1960, the nation then known as Zaire plunged into chaos. Military unrest coupled with oppressive warlord throughout the region made it a very unstable state, ready to collapse. Nowadays, U.N. peacekeeping forces hold posts in the nation to maintain its stability. The United States has had foreign relations with the country from 1960 and has signed many treaties to help promote growth in the region. One such document is the Peace, Security and Cooperation framework that exists between the United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as 10 other African nations. I believe that The Peace, Security and Cooperation framework definitely helps to promote the United States best interest in the DRC due to access to oil, prevention of military destabilization in the region as well as benefits from African businesses.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had a long history of bloody conflict, civil war, and western exploitation dating back to 1885 when King Leopold II of Belgium brutally exploited the country for rubber. Agents of King Leopold II would storm a village, hold the women hostage until the men reached a quota of rubber. When the men left in search of the material, often for days or weeks, dying of exhaustion in the process, the women were raped and starved (Adam Hochschild, 161). Since that time the DRC has been caught in a cycle of continuous exploitation of natural resources by more developed countries. The DRC is caught in the political science theory called resource curse. Resource curse states that a developing country with a high amount of natural resources is at an increased risk for civil war and doomed to slower development because of political corruption, lack of economic diversification, and failure to invest in human capital (Nadira Lalji,
In short, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a very diverse country with some core cultural norms across the board. After a century of being extorted and manipulated by foreign countries, all so the profit of the DRCs resources go to other countries, the local culture has grown to be significantly introverted – very focused on ensuring individual survival. Many of the armed organizations are full of people facing their last resort. The culture recognizes the potential to be successful and the social structure holds them back due to outsiders, leaving the population to hold a grudge against