Civil War in the Republic of the Congo
| date | June 1997 to December 1999 |
|---|---|
| place | Republic of the Congo |
| Casus Belli | Stop the democratization process |
| output | Return to power by Denis Sassou-Nguesso |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Lissouba government (until October 1997) |
Government Sassou Nguesso (from October 1997) |
| Commander | |
| losses | |
| At least 13,929 war-related deaths between 1996 and 1999 | |
The civil war in the Republic of the Congo was a military conflict between the presidential candidates Pascal Lissouba and Denis Sassou-Nguesso in the Republic of Congo , which lasted from June 1997 to December 1999 and ended with the invasion of Angolan forces and the establishment of Sassou-Nguesso as ruler . In the Congo, the war is widely known as the June 5th War .
History and events
In 1991 the Marxist-Leninist Congolese Workers' Party (PCT) , which had ruled since 1968, under Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who ruled from 1979 to 1992, was forced to give up power through mass demonstrations. Until then, the Congo was a communist one-party state . In 1992, Pascal Lissouba won the country's first democratic elections and became the new president. Congo's democratization process was interrupted in 1997. As the presidential elections, scheduled for July 1997, drew closer, tensions grew between supporters of President Lissouba and former President Sassou-Nguesso.
When Lissouba's government forces surrounded Sassou's premises in Brazzaville on June 5, Sassou ordered his militias to resist. This started a four-month conflict that destroyed a large part of the capital. In early October 1997, Angolan troops marched into the Congo on the side of Sassou. Most of Brazzaville's neighborhoods fell under the control of the rebels and Angolan forces on October 14, 1997 . Lissouba fled; within two days the capital was under the control of forces loyal to Sassou-Nguesso and Pointe-Noire fell with little resistance. Soon after, Sassou declared himself president and appointed a 33-member government.
In the course of the political conflict between Lissouba and Sassou-Nguesso, oil was a decisive factor in the war, and with French interests at stake, France backed Sassou-Nguesso against Lissouba.
In January 1998 the Sassou regime held a National Forum for Reconciliation to determine the nature and length of the transition period. The forum, which was tightly controlled by the government, decided that elections should be held after more than three years, elected a transitional advisory legislature, and announced that a constitutional convention would draft a constitution. However, the outbreak of fighting in the final months of 1998 between Sassou's government troops and an armed opposition interrupted the temporary return to democracy . This new violence also closed the economically important Congo-Ocean Railway between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire and resulted in widespread destruction of life in southern Brazzaville and the Pool , Bouenza and Niari regions . In addition, the violence led to a migration of several hundred thousand people. However, in November and December 1999 the government signed agreements with many, if not all, of the rebel groups. The December agreement negotiated by President Omar Bongo of Gabon called for further negotiations, including precise political ones, between the government and the opposition.
literature
- Patrice Yengo : La Guerre civile du Congo-Brazzaville 1993-2002: Chacun aura sa part. Karthala, Paris 2006 ISBN 978-2-84586-815-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ Uppsala Conflict Data Program, archived copy ( memento of the original dated April 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed at 19:08 CET, 19/07/2010.
- ↑ Global security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/congo-b.htm . Accessed at 18:37 GMT 04/02/2010.
- ↑ CIA factbook, at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cf.html . Accessed at 18:43 GMT 04/02/2010.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed at 18:45 GMT 04/02/2010
- ↑ BBC news, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1076794.stm as of 16:42 GMT, Friday, January 29, 2010.
- ↑ a b Howard W. French, "Rebels, backed by Angola, Take Brazzaville and Oil Port" , The New York Times , October 16, 1997th
