Abstract
War erupted on August 2, 1998.1 The first skirmishes occurred in Bukavu where Banyamulenge soldiers attacked the city jail and freed their fellow tribesmen imprisoned after the February mutiny.2 The two Tutsi-Banyamulenge remaining in the Kabila government—Deogratias Bugera (the former secretary general of the ADFL) and Bizima Karaha (the foreign affairs minister)—were said to have left Kinshasa to join the Tutsi rebels in the east. These rumors were confirmed when Bizima Karaha announced from Goma that the rebellion was “a countrywide revolution to topple Kabila.”3 In an interview with a Congolese newspaper, he explained that “Kabila surroun[ded] himself with members of his Balukat clan from the Katanga province.”4 On August 3, Sylvain Mbuchy, a senior Banyamulenge officer and the commander of the Tenth Battalion of the Congolese Army, declared on the radio station Voix du Peuple, “We, the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have decided to remove President Laurent-Désiré Kabila from power.”5 Ilunga Kabambi, another officer, announced that “after consultations, the military command has decided to withdraw support from the government in Kinshasa.” He insisted that “since Kabila achieved power, the country has been heading toward the worst. We have enough of him, even though he has only been in power for a short period of time.”6
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Notes
Reuters, “Shooting in Kinshasa, Army Revolt in East,” August 3, 1998, 1.
IRIN, “DRC: Rebels Consolidate Gains in West as Expatriate Evacuates,” August 7, 1998.
Reuters, “Congo Government Calls for Calm after Shooting,” August 3, 1998.
Reuters, “Revolt Spreads in Kabila’s Congo,” August 4, 1998.
Reuters, “Congo Urges Neighbors to Avoid Rebellion,” August 4, 1998.
IRIN Update No. 473 for Central and Eastern Africa, August 4, 1998; and U.S. Information Agency (USIA), “U.S. Watching Situation in DRC,” August 5, 1998.
IRIN: “DRC: Beni Falls to Rebels amid Claims of Ugandan Involvement,” August 10, 1998.
IRIN, “DRC: Bunia in Rebel Hands, Uvira Quiet,” August 13, 1998.
IRIN-CEA, Bulletin quotidien d’Information sur l’Afrique Centrale et l’Afrique de l’est, August 6, 1998.
Reuters, “Anti-Kabila Revolt Spreads to Congo’s West,” August 6, 1998.
Reuters, “Rebels Expelled from West Congo Port,” August 10, 1998.
Christian Science Monitor, “At the Heart of an African Rebellion,” August 11, 1998.
IRIN: “DRC: Rebels Deny Government Forces Heading East,” August 11, 1998.
IRIN: “DRC: Kinshasa Plunged into Darkness as Rebels Take Power Plant,” August 13, 1998.
Reuters, “DR Congo Rivals for Showdown in West,” August 18, 1998.
IRIN-SA, “DRC: Zimbabwe Says SADC to Back Kabila,” August 19, 1998.
Reuters, “Battle Brewing on DR Congo Western Front,” August 19, 1998.
IRIN, “DRC: Zimbabwean, Angolan Troops Arrive to Back Kabila,” August 20, 1998.
Reuters, “Congo Rebels Stalled in West, Angola Send Troops,” August 25, 1998.
Reuters, “Rebels Attack Outskirts of Kinshasa,” August 26, 1998.
IRIN: “DRC: Rebels Tell Angola They Have No Link with UNITA,” August 27, 1998.
Reuters, “Shelling in Kinshasa Suburbs, Civilian Flee,” August 28, 1998.
Agence France Presse (AFP), “Kabila Forms a New DR Congo Government to Kick Out ‘Aggressors,’” March 15, 1999.
Reuters, “Congo’s Kabila Seeks Army Victory after Talks Fail,” September 16, 1998.
Pan-African News Agency (PANA), “Military Confirms Fall of Kindu,” October 13, 1998.
Reuters, “Congo Rebels Battle Government Troops in Eastern Town,” October 4, 1998.
Reuters, “Congo Rebels Say Rwandan Troops Helping Them,” October 14, 1998.
IRIN-SA, “Zimbabwe/DRC: Mugabe Threatens to Intervene East,” October 15, 1998.
IRIN-SA, “Zimbabwe/DRC: Mugabe Threatens to Intervene in East,” October 15, 1998.
AFP, “Namibian Reinforcement Sent to DRC,” November 10, 1998.
AFP, “DR Congo Government Forces Sink Two Rebel Boats in East,” November 2, 1998.
AFP, “Zimbabwe Announces Start of Eastern Offensive in DR Congo,” November 25, 1998.
AFP, “DR Congo Allied Forces Destroy Rebel Plane, Warn of Land Attack,” November 25, 1998.
AFP, “DR Congo Allied Forces Destroy Rebel Plane, Warn of Land Attack,” November 25, 1998.
AFP, “Heavy Fighting between DR Congo Troops, Rebels in East: Sources,” November 27, 1998.
AFP, “More than 1,000 DR Congo Rebels Killed in the East,” December 5, 1998.
AFP, “Report of Mutiny by Zimbabwean Troops in DR Congo Slammed as ‘Lies,’” November 30, 1998.
AFP, “Rebels Control Southeastern Town in DRC,” November 26, 1998.
AFP, “Rebels Claim Further Strategic Gains in DRC,” April 12, 1999.
Reuters, “Rwanda Says Congo Rebels Take Kabila’s Home Town,” May 10, 1999.
AFP, “Congo Air Raid Kills 28 in Goma Rebel Headquarters,” May 9, 1999.
Amnesty International, “Scores of Executions in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” May 18, 1999.
AFP, “Millionaire Rebel Recruits 1,000 Youth for DRC Uprising,” November 26, 1998.
AFP, “Renewed Gunfire in Northern DR Congo Town,” January 11, 1999.
AFP, “DR Congo to Fight on until Ceasefire Signed: Bemba,” July 9, 1999.
Reuters, “Congo Rebels Say Hutu Forces Attacking,” September 14, 1998.
AFP, “DR Congo Rebels Claim Gains; Refugees on the Move,” March 11, 1999.
See Filip Reyntjens, Laguerre des grands lacs: Alliances mouvantes et conflicts extraterritoriaux en Afrique centrale (Paris: l’Harmattan, 1999), 232.
Emile Lejeune, Laurent-Désiré Kabila: Militant nationaliste congolais (Tubize: Gamma Presse, 1997).
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© 2011 François Ngolet
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Ngolet, F. (2011). The Rebellion. In: Crisis in the Congo. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230116252_2
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