Difference between revisions of "Democratic Republic of Congo"

Latest revision as of 10:11, April 29, 2007

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-[[Belgium]] held the '''Congo''' as an [[Africa]]n colony for mining [[copper]] and producing [[rubber]].  When Belgium granted Congo its independence in 1960 and [[Patrice Lumumba]] was sworn in its its first prime minister, the young nation was unprepared.  Moise Tshombe, a leader of southeast region that had the copper mines, announced its separate independence.  Tshombe was backed by Belgians interested in the copper, while Lumumba was supported by the communist [[Soviet Union]].  Joseph Mobutu, with sympathy by the West, then overthrew Lumumba, who was then murdered.  Tshombe ruled for a short period until he, too, was overthrown by Mobutu.
+#redirect [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
-Mobutu renamed the nation Zaire, and ruled it for 32 years.  He personally accumulated enormous wealth from the nation, until he was deposed (overthrown) by Laurent Kabila in 1997.  Kabila then changed the nation's name to the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The neighboring countries of [[Rwanda]] and [[Uganda]] supported an insurrection in 1998, and a civil war resulted between the pro-Kabila [[Hutu]] tribe and the anti-Kabila [[Tutsi]] tribe.  As more African nations became involved in this conflict in Central Africa, it began to look like the first all-African war.  The United Nations sent peacekeeping troops in February 2000 and a cease-fire was declared later that year.
-[[Category:African Countries]]