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 Congo, Democratic Republic of
theLaurent Kabila Topples MobutuLaurent Kabila and his long-standing but
little-known guerrilla movement launched a seven-month campaign that
ousted Mobutu in May 1997, ending one of the world's most corrupt and
megalomaniacal regimes. The last of the CIA-nurtured cold war despots,
Mobutu deftly courted France and the U.S., which used Zaire as a launching
pad for covert operations against bordering countries, particularly
Marxist Angola. Mobutu's disastrous policies drove his country into
economic collapse while he siphoned off millions of dollars for
himself.
The country was renamed the Democratic Republic
of the Congo in 1997, which had been its name before Mobutu changed it to
Zaire in 1971. But elation over Mobutu's downfall faded as Kabila's own
autocratic style emerged, and he seemed devoid of a clear plan for
reconstructing the country. In Aug. 1998, Congolese rebel forces, backed
by Kabila's former allies, Rwanda and Uganda, gained control of a large
portion of the country until Angolan, Namibian, and Zimbabwean troops came
to Kabila's aid. In 1999, the Lusaka Accord was signed by all six of the
countries involved, as well as by most, but not all, of the various rebel
groups.
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