Third Congo War
Area of conflict in the Congo
| date | November 25, 2006 - January 16, 2009 Continuous since January 2015 |
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| place | North Kivu |
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| Parties to the conflict | ||
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| Commander | ||
| Troop strength | ||
 FARDC approximately 20,000 MONUC 16,475 (19,560 as of December 2008)
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approx. 4,000 6,000-8,000 |
approx. 15,000 |
The Third Congo War (as it is commonly known in the Congo, mostly referred to in the international media as the Kivu War or (imprecisely) the Kivu conflict ) is an intermittent civil war in the province of North Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).
During the two-year war from the end of 2006 to the end of 2008, which was interrupted several times by lengthy phases of the ceasefire, the Tutsi rebels of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) fought against the Congolese government forces, which they cooperate with the Hutu -Militias of the Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR). A ceasefire was negotiated in January 2007 and January 2008, but each only lasted a few months. After a major offensive, the CNDP captured several important cities in North Kivu province in autumn 2008 and announced that it wanted to overthrow the government in Kinshasa. The fighting ended abruptly in January 2009 with a ceasefire when the CNDP unilaterally declared the war over after internal disputes. A lasting peace in the region, which has been suffering from a confusing civil war with dozens of factions since 1994, did not materialize.
In March 2012, under the leadership of Bosco Ntaganda and Sultani Makenga, the March 23 Movement was founded , which is seen as the successor to the CNDP militia.
background
After the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, hundreds of thousands of Hutu fled Rwanda , including many of the main perpetrators of the genocide , to eastern Zaire , from where they continued to attack Rwanda and Zaire-based Tutsi. From 1997 onwards, Congolese Tutsi, supported by Rwandan government troops, conquered the whole of Zaire in the first Congo War and overthrew the dictator Mobutu , who had done nothing against the presence of the Rwandan refugees in his country. After the new Congolese government quickly fell out with Rwanda, Rwanda tried again to force a regime change in Kinshasa. Another coup did not succeed because the Congolese government received support from several other African countries. A positional war of years developed in which neither side could achieve a victory. The Second Congo War ended in a draw in 2003, all warring parties agreed on a joint transitional government, and free elections took place in 2006 .
From 1996 onwards, with the support of the UNHCR, the majority of the total of over one million refugees were repatriated to Rwanda, leaving a hard core of around 25,000 fighters in 2003 who opposed the repatriation. Under the name Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), they continued to work to overthrow the new, Tutsi-led Rwandan government. The FDLR was not involved in the peace negotiations, its activity was formally prohibited, but there were also no attempts to force the repatriation of the last Hutu refugees militarily.
Course of war
The rebel organization National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) of the former RCD General Laurent Nkunda , who had rejected the Congolese interim government in 2004 and subsequently withdrew to the province of Kivu , fought against the Congolese government armed forces, the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du , from 2006 onwards Congo (FARDC) and the UN peacekeeping force MONUC, allied with them . Nkunda, himself a Tutsi, stated that his troops would defend the Tutsi against attacks by the FDLR . He accused the Congolese government of supporting the FDLR or at least doing nothing against them.
War events 2006/07
The Third Congo War began in November 2006 when members of Nkunda's militia wanted to avenge the death of a young Tutsi who was shot and killed by a police officer at a traffic stop in sake . CNDP troops captured sake, and the motivated rebels had an easy time against the disorganized and undisciplined government soldiers. However, UN troops captured sake within a few days using attack helicopters . Indirect negotiations between the government in Kinshasa and the CNPD, mediated by Rwanda, finally resulted in the CNDP declaring its willingness to cooperate with the government army FARDC in the fight against the FDLR. The government army set up new, "mixed" units in which soldiers from various ethnic groups and former rebel groups, including above all CNDP fighters, were supposed to fight together. The government troops' largest offensive against the FDLR to date began, and the fighting drove hundreds of thousands to flee. The cooperation between CNDP and FARDC was short-lived, however, as early as the summer of 2007 the “mixed” units disbanded themselves, and the Nkunda rebels withdrew back to their base in the Masisi Mountains . The government troops gathered units from all over the country in Kivu, and in October 2007 the numerically outnumbered FARDC tried to conquer Nkundas' headquarters in the mountains with the support of MONUC. Against the local rebels, the undisciplined government troops had no chance. The FARDC lost over 2,600 men and there were massive desertions . Several brigades disbanded completely, the soldiers fled, leaving all their military equipment behind. The government had to admit defeat and on December 17, 2007 announced a major peace conference in Goma .
On January 23, a total of 22 rebel groups from the Kivu region signed a comprehensive armistice monitored by the UN , later troop unbundling, the repatriation of foreign fighters to their home countries and the integration of the rebels into the regular armed forces were to take place. Five years after the Pretoria Agreement , which ended the Second Congo War , there now seemed to be an opportunity to end the war in Kivu.
The agreement was not implemented, however, the rebels opposed integration into the FARDC in many cases, and the problem of the FDLR presence was not dealt with in the agreement. FDLR attacks continued.
Resurgence in 2008
After months of calm, the war flared up again in August 2008. Nkunda, whose official war goal until then had always been to protect the Tutsi from the FDLR, has now called for the overthrow of the Kabila government in Kinshasa . He presented himself as a “new strong man” in the country. In October, the CNDP began a new offensive, within a few weeks they captured important cities, and towards the end of the month they were facing the provincial capital Goma . The government troops offered little resistance, instead they fled south, murdering and looting.
Nkunda initially refrained from conquering Goma, the UN reorganized negotiations, Rwanda and the government of the Congo should jointly tackle the solution of the FDLR problem. Then the events tumbled: on January 5, 2009, Bosco Ntaganda , a high-ranking general within the CNDP, declared that Nkunda had been dismissed “for poor conduct,” and on January 16, the CNDP declared the war to be over and terminated its entry into the FARDC on. Rwandan troops marched into the Congo on January 20, and two days later Nkunda was arrested by Rwandan troops.
The end of the CNDP and the joint military action by the government troops of Rwanda and the Congo against the FDLR gave rise to renewed hope that the conflict in Kivu could now be resolved. This did not happen, however, the actual success of the Rwandan-Congolese offensive against the FDLR was low. Several FDLR bases were destroyed and the fighters dispersed, but this only affected 10% of the units. Furthermore, the presence of various irregular combat units in the east of the Congo continues, the end of the CNDP ended the open war, but a stable peace was not achieved.
Foundation of the M23
In April 2012, the March 23rd movement was formed as the successor to the CNDP militias, which deserted the FARDC. This step was justified by the fact that agreements in the contract of March 23, 2009 for the integration of the CNDP into the FARDC had been broken.
Web links
- globalsecurity.org on the Congo War (English)
literature
- Dominic Johnson : Congo - Wars, Corruption and the Art of Survival. 2nd Edition. Brandes & Apsel, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86099-743-7 .
- Dave Renton, David Seddon, Leo Zeilig: The Congo: Plunder and Resistance. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-84277-485-4 .
- Thomas Turner: The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth, and Reality. Zed Books, London, New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-84277-689-6 ( Google books ).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Johnson, p. 159
- ↑ a b c Johnson, p. 168
- ↑ 'Scores dead' in Burundi clashes. Retrieved May 21, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Johnson, p. 167
- ^ Johnson, p. 162
- ↑ a b c Johnson, p. 164
- ↑ BBC News : Congo rebels call for peace talks, December 13, 2007
- ↑ a b c Johnson, p. 161
- ↑ a b Johnson, p. 166
- ↑ Press reports on this topic usually refer to the fighting as the Kivu War or the Kivu Conflict , but these terms are also used generally for the entire armed conflict in Eastern Congo . There is no independent name for this war
- ↑ Johnson, pp. 71ff
- ↑ Johnson, pp. 74ff
- ↑ Johnson, p. 79
- ↑ Johnson, p. 104
- ^ Johnson, p. 158
- ↑ Johnson, pp. 161ff
- ↑ Johnson, p. 165
- ↑ BBC News : DR Congo rebel faction ends was January 17, 2009.
- ↑ Johnson, pp. 170f