Training
1
Introduction
2
The Liberian Conflict
Members of the indigenous population were not allowed to apply for public office unless they were Christians and had renounced to paganism for 3 years, up until 1904. The settlers were enforcing the law and maintaining their control on the rest of the population with the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).
1
Introduction
Africa after the Cold War has been the theater of a number
of inter-states and intra-states conflicts resulting from emerging
nationalisms. Below are introduced some of these conflicts that have taken place in
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Sudan, Darfur and Congo.
A large contribution for this overview originates from the following reference.
A large contribution for this overview originates from the following reference.
2
The Liberian Conflict
The Western African state of Liberia was founded in an
unusual way in 1822 by free America slaves. It is the oldest independent state
of Africa with its capital city Monrovia.
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The American settlers comprised less than 5% of the Liberian
population yet they exercised a systematic domination on the indigenous
population by controlling social and political institutions at the center of
power and influence such as:
§ The
Church
§ The
Masonic Temple
Members of the indigenous population were not allowed to apply for public office unless they were Christians and had renounced to paganism for 3 years, up until 1904. The settlers were enforcing the law and maintaining their control on the rest of the population with the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).
In 1980, after generations of unresolved tension, President
Tolbert was overthrown and a leader
Samuel Kanyon Doe emerged from the indigenous population to become the president
after a bloody coup.
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Figure 1 President Tolbert (left) and
Samuel Kanyon Doe (right)
This event was a source of hope for the indigenous
population. The euphoria was cut short when S. K. Doe started a militarization
of the society and the implementation of repressive policies. Divisions
appeared in the once united indigenous population. Samuel K. Doe selected
members of his ethnic group, the Krahn, for his government surroundings. His regime is remembered
for atrocities and human right abuse committed by the AFL including looting,
rape, arson, flogging, arbitrary arrests, and summary executions. Political opponents as well as members of the
press opposed to his policy were intimidated, arrested, and arbitrarily
imprisoned.
Figure 2 Charles Taylor
On December 24th, 1989, a rebellion that started
in the northeast side of the country was led by Charles Taylor, at the head of
the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). The conflict escalated into
civil war where civilians were the primary targets of violence in gross
violations of humanitarian laws. An estimated 200,000 people lost their
lives. On September 9th, 1990
former President Samuel K. Doe on a visit to the Port of Monrovia was captured,
tortured, mutilated and finally executed by the psychopathic leader of the
INPFL party (Independant National Patriotic Front of Liberia) , Prince Y. Johnson.
Progressively, the state collapsed as the government lost
control over the regions within the borders while the warlords were gaining
power. By October 1990, 600,000 refugees were spilling over neighbouring
countries. Warring factions started proliferating. In 1995, eight parties to
the conflict were recognized.
On August 19th, 1995 the Abuja Agreement was signed
as a peace treaty between
§ the
AFL
§ the
NPFL
§ the
Central Revolutionary Council
§ the
Liberian Peace Council
§ the
Lofa Defence Force
§ the
Liberia National Conference
§ the
United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO-K and ULIMO-J)
The impact of this conflict was felt by neighbouring
countries in the form of influx of refugees and cross-border incursions
creating insecurity. It was in the neighbours interest to obtain a resolution of the
conflict through regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) with its peacekeeping force the ECOMOG (ECOWAS
Monitoring Group). The
single most important achievement of ECOWAS in October 1990 was its ability to
drive Charles Taylor’s NPFL out of the immediate vicinity of the capital,
allowing the humanitarian agencies to return to deliver desperately needed
assistance.
A neighbouring country like Nigeria that provided material
support to Samuel K. Doe at the initial stage of the conflict was not perceived
as impartial, thereby causing its credibility to be questioned by conflicting
parties. The United Nation played a complementary role in the conflict
resolution filling the gaps for the regional organization and being accepted as
a more neutral actor. Cooperation between the ECOWAS and the UN started in 1993
when a UN observer force was authorized to work together with a
regional peacekeeping mission in the same area of operation.
Despite several peace conferences and agreements, the
conflict escalated again in October 1992, when the NPFL launched a major attack
on ECOMOG. The ECOMOG went on the counteroffensive, seizing strategic locations
such as the ports of Greenville and Buchanan from the NPFL. The Cotonou
Agreement was signed in Geneva on July 25, 1993 but Charles Taylor’s ambition
was to become the president of Liberia at all costs. He was elected president
in 1997.
The second Liberian civil war started in 1999 with an
insurrection against Taylor. Taylor resigned in August 2003 and went into exile
in Nigeria. Free elections took place in 2005 and the government established
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2006.
3
Sierra Leone
4
The Ethiopia – Eritrea war
4.1
Conflict background
4.2
Ethnic Composition
4.3
Political groups
4.4
The modern conflict
5
The Sudan North-South Conflict
After 1996, the new IGAD launched a second phase of negotiations. The Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A agreed to cooperate fully in the search for a negotiated solution.
6
The Conflict in Darfur
and the following reference:
6.1
The people of Darfur
6.2
The Sudanese government
6.3
The Independence of South Sudan
6.4
The Janjaweeds
6.5
The Genocide
7 The Democratic Republic of Congo
7.1
The First Congo (Zaire) War
7.2
The Second Congo War
At the beginning of 1999, the RCD had split into the RCD-ML (Mouvement de Liberation) backed by Uganda and the RCD-Goma backed by Rwanda after a disagreement. A third rebel group the Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo (MLC) was created with Uganda support. Together, the 3 rebel groups held the eastern half of the country.
Laurent Kabila was assassinated on January 16th, 2001. His son Joseph Kabila took over the leadership and permitted the full deployment of UN forces. The request for voluntary compliance from armed groups to abandon their weapons led these groups to go underground.
7.3
The Third Congo War
This ongoing war has been the deadliest conflict since World War II with an estimated 5.4 million people killed by combats, disease and famine.
3
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is a Western African country located next to
Liberia and having a connected history.
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The United Kingdom colonized Sierra Leone in the late 1700s.
In 1808 the capital city Freetown became a British Crown Colony and in 1896 the
interior of the country became a British Protectorate. The two regions fused in
1961 when the country became independent.
Like many other African countries, Sierra Leone is composed
of a complex patchwork of ethnic groups. The Temne in the north and the Mende
in the south are the main ones accounting for 60% of the total population. With
14 other indigenous groups scattered around the protectorate, the distribution
is called multiethnic bipolarity. The Creoles who are only 2% of the population
originate from slaves from the UK and Nova Scotia repatriated after 1808. The
Creoles constitute the elite of the society. The British colony allowed them to
control the colonial bureaucracy and trades and the Creoles adopted an attitude
of contempt towards the indigenous population, The British manipulated the rift
in the population in a “divide and conquer” policy to better exploit the land for
its agriculture and minerals. They encouraged ethnic divisions of labor.
Figure 3 This emotional novel tells the story of slaves
from Western Africa
In the years closer to independence, the Creoles gradually
lost power due to their demography and lack of interest in joining with the
indigenes in the political process. The electoral process turned at the
advantage of the two major ethnic groups, the Temne and the Mende. Ethnic animosity and grievances were
exploited by politicians. The country was unable to create a coherent political
culture amongst proliferating sectarian demands resulting in poverty, poor
education and, therefore, poor employment opportunities, and a failed government.
Economic development focused on the diamond industry and neglected the
agriculture causing rural poverty and more unemployment.
In 1949, Sir Milton Margai founded the Sierra Leone People’s
Party (SLPP) under British rule and became the first prime minister at independence in 1961.
In March 1967, Siaka Stevens from the ALL People’s Congress won the elections
but was immediately overthrow by a coup. He came back to power in 1968 in
another coup.
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Figure 4 Sir Milton Margai (left) Siaka Stevens (right)
The Stevens government was characterized by corruption,
mismanagement, scandals and repression. The people reacted with strikes,
violent demonstrations, and attempts on counter coups. The political unrest
continued with his successor Maj. Gen. Joseph Momoh.
In March 1991, a group of rebels from Liberia (the
Revolutionary United Front - RUF) crossed into Sierra Leone to overthrow the government.
Within a year they controlled the east and south of the country where most of
the diamond industry was located.
Figure 5 The Revolutionary United Front
On May 1st 1992, Captain Valentine Strasser and
his Sierra Leone Army overthrew General Momoh, consolidated his power in the
north and took on the task of fighting the rebels from the RUF with help from
the Kamajors (traditional hunters of the Mende ethnic group) and the Executive Outcome from South Africa (professional security personal).
Figure 6 Captain Valentine Strasser
After another coup, national elections were held on February
26, 1996 and Ahmed Tejan Kabbah became president. He signed the Abidjan Accords
in November 30th, 1996 with the RUF. He obtained an immediate
cease-fire, the de-escalation of the conflict and the RUF turned into a
political party.
Figure 7 President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
However, the country became unstable again until May 25th,
1997 when Maj. Johnny Paul Koroma took power in a single day of combat. He
established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the RUF joined his
government. President Kabbah fled to
Guinea by helicopter.
The AFRC/RUF government reduced freedom of press and civil
rights. It did not receive international recognition and the Organization of
African Unity (OAU) condemned the coup along with the UN Security Council.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided to work towards restoring Kabbah as
president. They imposed regional sanctions on Sierra Leone. The UN Security
Council followed with an embargo on arms and oil. After more combats between
ECOMOG and the AFRC/RUF junta in February 1998, an agreement was reached for
the return to power of Kabbah. Violence resumed in the summer and culminated on
January 6th, 1999 in the streets of Freetown.
The Lomé Agreement was signed on July 7th, 1999
involving the government, the RUF, the UN, ECOWAS and OAU promoting a government
of national unity, disarmament et demobilization, an amnesty on war crimes and
the establishment of human rights, truth and reconciliation commissions. The United
Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) was established.
As the peace enforcement forces were about to withdraw in 2000,
the situation deteriorated. UN peacekeepers were abducted. On July 5th, 2000 the UN Security
Council imposed an 18-month ban on the trade of diamonds from Sierra Leone. The
Abuja Agreement between the government and the RUF was signed on November 10th,
2000 immediately followed by more violence. By January 2001, the RUF controlled
more than half of the country including most of the diamond areas. An
intervention from Guinea Armed Forces against the RUF pushed them to sign another
agreement in Abuja, opened up the way for conflict de-escalation. Elections took
place in May 2002.
In 2004 the disarmament was complete. The UN Peacekeeping
forces left in December 2005.
The Sierra Leone Civil War, lasting from 1991 to 2002 left
more than 50,000 people dead, much of the country's infrastructure destroyed,
and over two million people displaced in neighbouring countries like Guinea.
4
The Ethiopia – Eritrea war
The Ethiopia-Eritrea war was neither an interstate nor an
intra-state conflict. It did not fit in any of the following categories:
inter-communal, interethnic, intra-communal or intra-ethnic. The root cause of
the conflict is a combination of border dispute, economic issues, ideologies,
democracy against authoritarian regime.
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Figure 8 Eritrea (left) Ethiopia
(center) in Eastern Africa (right)
4.1
Conflict background
Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. The Ethiopian
Empire was also known as Abyssinia. Italy tried to conquer Ethiopia on two
occasions. During the first Ethiopian war with Italy (1895-1896), Ethiopia
succeeded in pushing back the coloniser. The second Ethiopian war with Italy
took place between Oct 1935 and May 1936. Italy managed to occupy the
Abyssinian region extending over parts of Eritrea, Ethiopian and Somalia.
In 1941, the Allied forces drove Italian forces out of Abyssinia.
Britain administered the region and divided it along religious lines, creating
Christian Ethiopia and Muslim Sudan. In 1952, the UN created an
Eritrean-Ethiopian federation. In 1962, Haile Selassie who was Emperor of
Ethiopia abolished the federation and imposed imperial rule on Eritrea. In January 1974, the Eritrean People's
Liberation Front (EPLF) handed Haile Selassie's forces a crushing defeat at Asmera.
Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia until 1993.
On 29 May 1991, Isaias Afewerki, secretary general of the
People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which then served as the
country's legislative body, announced the formation of the Provisional
Government in Eritrea (PGE).
Eritrea became an independent state on 24 May
1993, following an internationally monitored referendum in which citizens voted
overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia. The Eritrean People's Liberation
Front (EPLF), which led the 30-year war for independence, has controlled the
country since it defeated Ethiopian armed forces in 1991.
With independence
from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993, Eritrea faced the bitter economic problem of a
small, desperately poor African country. Eritrea gained in dependence in a
peaceful way but the border has always been disputed leading to the modern war
in May 1998.
4.2
Ethnic Composition
Habesha is a term
that both Ethiopians and Eritreans use to refer to themselves, in order to
eliminate the distinction between tribes and celebrate unity as people of the
same region.
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Figure 9 Ethnic composition of Eritrea (left) and
Ethiopia (right)
The dominant ethnic groups within Habesha include Amhara, Tigray-Tigrinya and Tigre,
predominantly Oriental Christians except for the Tigre who are Muslim.
The Kebasa people
live in the Eritrean highlands and speak Tigrinya.
The Tigray-Tigrinya live in Eritrea and the
highlands of Ethiopia’s Tigray province.
Until the XVIIIth century, both the Kebasa and the Tigray identified themselves with the Ethiopian (Habesha) culture, forming a distinct
group from the Amhara.
The Amhara account for 27% of Ethiopia
The Tigray account for 6% of Ethiopia
The Tigrinya account for 55% of Eritrea
The Tigre account for 30% of Eritrea
During the Italian colonisation, the Kebasa from Eritrea
affirmed their distinct identity within the Habesha culture and opposed to the
other Tigray sub-category.
However, in the 1950s the Eritreans were interested in
uniting with the Tigray region for a greater independent Eritrea.
The 1960s saw the slow rise of Kebasa nationalism as an
Eritrean nationalism. The self-identification that once distinguished Eritrean
Habesha from Tigray /Amhara Habesha was gradually replaced by one that opposed
Eritrean identity to an Ethiopian one.
4.3
Political groups
The leaders of the Tigray
Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF),
coming from the minority Tigrean nation (7 percent of Ethiopia’s population of
close to 60 million), have been dominating the country since 1991 by controlling
the surrogate fronts that they created for other groups.
Nine officially recognized nationalities make up Eritrea’s
population of 3.5–4 million. The leaders of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), renamed as the People’s
Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)
in 1994, dominate Eritrea’s highly centralized unitary government. The EPLF’s
most powerful leaders belong to the Tigrinya-speaking Eritrean highlanders who,
to outsiders, are indistinguishable from the neighboring Tigreans of northern
Ethiopia.
4.4
The modern conflict
The outbreak of hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia in
May 1998 is almost unanimously described as bewildering. Asked how the conflict
came about, the Eritrean president, Isaias Afewerki, responded, “It is very
difficult to easily find an answer.” His Ethiopian counterpart, Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi, said “I was surprised, shocked, puzzled” by the incident.
The two countries have gotten into a situation which none of
them really wanted to get into. The conflict was an expression of unresolved
key issues of territorial demarcations (boundaries) and political demarcations
(identity or citizenship). Hence, scholars from diverse backgrounds agree that
the process of identity change was still inconclusive when the conflict
erupted.
These two leaders, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia
and President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea, had once joined forces to pull off
spectacular and unprecedented history-making exercises. They collaborated in
defeating the Mengistu communist regime in 1991. They accomplished Eritrea’s
separation from the rest of Ethiopia amicably in 1993, an event without
precedent in Africa’s postcolonial history.
In May 1998, hostilities broke out between Eritrean armed
forces and Ethiopian militia along the border in response to the movement of
Eritrean forces into territory previously administered by Ethiopia. Eritrea
responded to an escalating military conflict by calling up reserves and
increasing its armed forces to approximately 100,000 to 120,000 soldiers.
Eritrea and Ethiopia exchanged artillery fire and engaged in air attacks
leading to numerous civilian casualties. In June 1998 Eritrean forces bombed
the Ethiopian town of Mekele and killed 47 civilians, including children. In
June 1998 and again in November 1998, Eritrean forces fired artillery shells at
the Ethiopian town of Adrigat, killing six persons and wounding several others.
By the end of 1998 approximately 250,000 Eritreans had been internally
displaced as a result of the conflict with Ethiopia. At the outbreak of the
war, Ethiopia detained and deported Eritreans and Ethiopian citizens of
Eritrean origin. By the end of 1998, a total of 45,000 such persons of an
estimated total population of up to 400,000 had left Ethiopia for Eritrea; the
vast majority were deported. The nationality of Eritrean-origin Ethiopians had
never been settled since the independence of Eritrea in 1993.
Despite the massive weapons build-up, the fortified
trenches, the harsh rhetoric, both countries insist they did not want this war,
and each country blames the other for continuing it. Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi says his country wants peace, but accuses Eritrea of acting
irrationally. Eritrea's president, Isays Afeworki, says Ethiopia is continuing
the war to humiliate the Eritreans.
The most recent fighting resumed on 11 May 2000 when the
Ethiopian forces made a major advance and captured a key border town inside
what was considered to be Eritrean territory.
In May 2000, Washington suggested a full arms embargo on the
two countries, in the hope of starving their arsenals. Russia and China are
skeptical of sanctions. Russia has urged continued diplomacy, which hasn't
worked. Because Ethiopia rejected a UN deadline to resume peace talks, the
United States would, as part of the sanctions, ban Ethiopian government
officials from traveling outside their country. Eritrea accepted the UN offer,
but whether that was out of a genuine desire to end the fighting or the need to
buy time after recent setbacks is hard to say.
A peace agreement was signed on
December 12, 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea putting an end to their two-year
border war.
5
The Sudan North-South Conflict
At the end of the XIXth century, the British
government led a military campaign against Sudan interested in its oil resources
and to have control over the Nile for downstream Egypt already colonized. Sudan
was administered as a British colony starting from 1899. Hussein Kamal was
appointed Sultan of Egypt and Sudan starting in 1914 after the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire. The Egyptian revolution of 1952 led by Gamal Abdel-Nasser brought
Egyptian independence.
On January 1st, 1956, Sudan obtained
independence with Ismail Al-Azhari as first Prime Minister.
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A civil war began between Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan
in 1955 just before the Sudanese country obtained independence. The North was
predominantly Arab and the South animist or Christian and feared the domination
from the North. The Anya-Nya guerilla movement from the South was created by
army officers that mutinied against Khartoum. They later became the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
(SPLM) and its SPLM Army (SPLA). The
rebels from the South stood against Islamic identity and assimilation. Identity
was not the only issue shaping this war. The ethno-religious conflict slowly
drifted into a conflict over resources. The Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) was created in 1991 as a
spin-off of SPLA. The 2 parties fought over the control of oil rich territory
in Southern Sudan. They merged back on January 2002.
Since 1999, the Sudan government had been earning hundreds
of millions of dollars in oil revenue. The revenue was spent in armament and to
combat rebel groups. The government was involved in scorched earth policy,
torture and terror to remove populations from resource-rich areas in the South.
Armed militias have been created to terrorize civilian populations supporting
the rebels. Sudan accused neighbouring countries like Egypt, Ethiopia and
Uganda of supporting separatist groups. Sudan became isolated on the
international scene as a government harbouring and supporting terrorist groups
like Al Qaeda and after Egyptian president Mubarak escaped from an
assassination attempt in 1995 in Addis Ababa.
Since 1983, the humanitarian crisis has seen an estimated 2
million deaths and over 4 million internally displaced people. The UN has
launched Africa’s largest relief operation the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS). The number of refugees in
neighbouring countries as of December 2000 is close to 250 000, in Uganda,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Central African Republic, Chad and
Ethiopia. Each of these countries became the theater of a crisis on its own in
the 1980s over government collapses and coups.
The Intergovernmental
Authority on Drought and Desertification (IGADD) was created in 1986 to
address drought and desertification and humanitarian crisis in the Horn of
Africa. Participants are Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.
An agreement signed in 1996 gave IGADD a mandate over peace and security as well.
The organization became the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD).
At the Abuja conference of 1991, Khartoum insisted on the
maintenance of its Islamic federal system, in which the South would be exempted
from a few Islamic laws and punishments. Self-determination was not acceptable
to the North.
Figure 10 Omar El Bashir president of
Sudan since 1989
From 1993 to 1995 IGADD tried to resolve the Sudan crisis,
at the request of Omar El Bashir. The declaration of principles of May 1994
identified necessary conditions for a comprehensive peace:
§ a
commitment by all parties to use peaceful means in resolving conflicts
§ respect
for the right to self-determination
§ the
separation of religion from the state
§ recognition
of the heterogeneous nature of the Sudan
§ the
promotion of the Sudan as a democratic, secular state
The talks broke down over self-determination of the South.
After 1996, the new IGAD launched a second phase of negotiations. The Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A agreed to cooperate fully in the search for a negotiated solution.
In Addis Ababa in August 1998 an agreement was reached that
the borders of the “South” would be determined as they stood at independence on
January 1, 1956. The parties also agreed to observe a three-month cease-fire to
facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief.
The UN’s largest and primary presence in the Sudan comes in
the form of relief operations—in particular Operational Lifeline Sudan. Some critics
argue that in spite of the large amount of resources associated with OLS since
it began in 1989, the people of southern Sudan are no better protected against
famine than they were then. This situation is blamed largely on the fact that
OLS relies on “negotiated access.” This means that the UN and all humanitarian
actors must seek and obtain permission from the Khartoum government, as well as
the SPLA, before delivering aid. In some cases, the government has used its
prerogative to obstruct aid to “enemy” populations.
In spite of the length of this conflict, and its security
ramifications, the UN Security Council has not passed a single resolution
dealing with the conflict (The council passed three resolutions relating to the
attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995, imposing
sanctions on the Sudan in order to pressure it into handing over suspects in
the assassination attempt). Only the UN has an impartial image, which is
crucial in reenergizing and pushing the negotiations to a successful
conclusion.
A referendum was held from January 9th to 15th,
2011 for South Sudan independence. A “yes” was obtained by 98.83% of the
population. The independent state of South Sudan was finally created on July 9th,
2011. The region of Abyei is still disputed. South Sudan shares its oil
revenues with Sudan. Interethnic warfare still exists in South Sudan.
6
The Conflict in Darfur
A large contribution to this section comes from the
following documentary:
and the following reference:
6.1
The people of Darfur
Darfur is the Western province of Sudan. The Fur Sultanate
is the first Muslim state in Darfur; it was created in the middle of the XVIIth
century. The homeland of the Fur people is called Daar-Fur (دارفور).
Arabic was the language of administration and Islam the official religion. All
Darfurians are Muslim. The north side of Darfur is arid and the south receives
more showers from June to September.
6 million people live in Darfur. The region is a melting pot
of more than 20 ethnic groups, some nomadic, some sedentary: the Fur, the
Zaghawa, the Tunjur and the Kaitinga to name a few. Arabs, Zaghawa and Meidob
are nomadic camel herders. The Rizeigat
is the largest and most powerful Arab tribe. For 3 centuries until 1916, Darfur
was an independent and prosperous kingdom.
Darfur was annexed to the Ottoman Empire in the middle of the XIXth
century.
The British defeated the Fur army and the sultan Ali Dinar in May
1916. Darfur was subsequently included into the British Empire. A ‘Native Administration’ system
was setup where chiefs administered their tribes on behalf of the government.
No development or modernization was undertaken.
Darfur got assimilated to the Sudanese culture, economy and politics
over 3 generations. In the 1980s the people of Darfur were complaining that the
government in Khartoum was not treating them as full Sudanese citizens after
all these years.
6.2
The Sudanese government
Colonel Nimeiry from the Nubian ethnic group came to power
in 1969 during a coup. The National
Islamic Front (NIC) party founded by Hassan Al Turabi in 1979 took power in
1989 during another coup.
In May 2000, young men distributed to the faithful
coming out of the mosque a document titled “The black book: Imbalance of power
and wealth in Sudan”. This document had been put together by the political
opposition to the government. They were describing how the elite of Sudan was
dominantly composed of 3 ethnic groups only: the Jaaliyins of president Omar Al
Bashir, the Shaygiya of vice-president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and the Danagla
of defence minister Bakri Hassan Saleh. The regions where these groups were
dominant - representing 5.4% of the Sudanese population - were privileged and
the rest of Sudan was neglected. The city
of Khartoum had almost all the industries of the country. The statistics in the
document were accurately demonstrative.
The Muslim Brotherhood of Hassan Al Turabi was one of the
opposition parties offering an alternative to corruption, political crisis and
economic failures and the end of ethnic, tribal and class divisions, reaching
out to provinces like Darfur. Turabi received military assistance from Muhamar
Gaddaffi and training camps in Lybia in order to prepare the way for an Islamic
state. Nimeiry was overthrown in 1985. But a civil war between the Sudan’s People Liberation Army (SPLA)
of John Garang and the Islamist government turned to the worse in 1987 where a
thousand displaced Dinka were killed in South-Eastern Darfur. An all-out
Arab-Fur war took place between 1987 and 1989 in Darfur where thousands were
killed. In August 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Turabi sided with
him thinking that an Islamic revolution was going to sweep the Arab world. By
doing so he condemned Sudan to a decade of isolation. Osama Bin Laden, stripped
of his Saudi citizenship was greeted in Khartoum along with an array of
terrorist organizations.
Khartoum intervened in the war in Chad between Hissene Habre
and Idriss Deby, by helping Deby to retake N’Djamena in December 1990. Turabi
and Ali Osman Mohamed Taha had plans for social transformations.
6.3
The Independence of South Sudan
A peace process took place in 2001 to settle the civil war
with the South. The support from the US government was short lived after the
September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack perpetrated by the former
tenant of the Bashir government, Osama Bin Laden. A Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed on
New Year’s Eve of 2004, with a referendum on self-determination for South Sudan
to follow. Revenues from oil fields were to be divided between the two
countries. After the peace with the South came more horrors with Darfur.
6.4
The Janjaweeds
Musa Hilal is the leader of the Sudanese government supported militia
called Janjaweeds. The Janjaweeds are
from the Rizeigat nomad Arab ethnic group, the camel herders. In August 2004,
Musa Hilal, an Arab supremacist, described his objective: to change the demography of Darfur and empty
it of African tribes, confident of his complete impunity. Starting in December
2003, Hilal was appointed by president Bashir to end the rebellion. He became a
holy warrior waging Jihad as the military commander of 20,000 men. Tawila is one place
where they committed atrocities.
6.5
The Genocide
Inspired by the recent access to independence of South
Sudan, rebels from Darfur - the Sudan
Liberation Army (SLA) - were seeking their own independence from Sudan,
accusing the government of oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arab citizens. At
the same time, the advance of the drought in the Sahara desert in North Sudan
led the camel herder Arab tribes to move South into territory were African
tribes like the Fur were living.
In February 2003, combats started between Janjaweeds
militiamen and African tribes. The Sudan government of Omar Al Bashir sided
with the Janjaweed militias even though it
denied it. Within the Sudanese army were a lot of ethnic Darfurians who did not
want to fight against their own ethnicity. For this reason, Omar Al Bashir used
the Janjaweeds to crush the rebellion.
The same scenario repeated itself from one village to another:
the Sudanese aviation bombs the village while the Janjaweed circle it
preventing villagers from escaping. Then the militia moves into the village and
massacres the villagers, rapes the women and throws the children into pit fires
and finally burn down the village.
The Organization of African Union (OAU) had been given a
mandate to observe and report on the atrocities but not to intervene. They were powerless
to prevent the genocide.
Under pressure from the UN, the Sudanese government sent
policemen of the same Arab ethnicity as the Janjaweed to guard and protect the
refugee camps where 2 million African Darfurians lived. The policemen have
turned these camps into giant ghettos where refugees are starved to death. Women
trying to escape the camp to get firewood are systematically raped and beaten
as a form of ethnic subjugation.
The suggestion that a western intervention by the United States or Great Britain forces to combat the Janjaweed is met by a fear that the western troops would be
dragged into the conflict siding against the Arab militias. This would be
interpreted as a case for a new Jihad against the “Crusaders”. Fear of
destabilization of Sudan which is the size of Western Europe further discourages
western intervention.
The Darfur Peace Agreement, the Doha Agreement, was signed
in July 2011 between the government of Sudan and the Liberation and Justice
Movement. An estimated 400,000 people have been killed in this conflict.
7 The Democratic Republic of Congo
The 3 conflicts in Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) (formerly Republic of Zaire) were the consequences of the genocide of Rwanda in 1994.
Nine African countries have been involved in 3 distinct Congo wars as direct
combatants and more as military, financial, and political supporters of the
fighting parties.
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The genocide in Rwanda started in April 1994 and lasted 3
months.
For several years, the Rwanda government was dominated by the Hutus and
led by President Habyarimana. A Tutsi
rebel group, the Rwanda Patriotic Front
(RPF) was in a state of civil war with the government.
On 6 April 1994, President Habyarimana's plane was shot down
near Kigali Airport, killing the President and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the
President of Burundi and triggering the genocide. The Hutu leaders mobilized
the entire Hutu population in a mass murder of close to 1 million Tutsi and
“moderate” Hutu.
The deterioration of the security situation led the UN to
withdraw most of its United Nations
Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR)
forces. On June 22, 1994, UN Security Council Resolution 929 authorized a
temporary French mission “for humanitarian purposes in Rwanda until UNAMIR is
brought up to the necessary strength.” The first of the 2,500 heavily armed
French troops of Opération Turquoise
began arriving in Goma the following day. The exclusively French intervention
was problematic as the Rwandan Hutu-dominated government had received political
and financial support as well as military training from the French since 1990.
The RPF saw the French intervention as an attempt to rescue the weakening
génocidaire government. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, commander of the
UNAMIR, witnessed the backlash on UN troops of the arrival of the French
soldiers.
Figure 11
Journalist and engineer Serge Farnel has investigated the implication of French
soldiers in the genocide in Rwanda
News accounts widely reported that the Mitterrand government
had, in fact, continued to ship arms to the Habyarimana government even after
the massacres had started. And, according to one observer close to the mission,
there were some in the French government and military who conceived of this
mission as an effort to provide assistance to the failing Hutu government.
Opération Turquoise established a so-called Safe Humanitarian Zone in southern
Rwanda to which many Hutu leaders, Rwandan military, and civilians retreated. Operation
Turquoise failed to stop the massacre of Tutsis and did not disarm the Hutu
militias, the Interahmwe, nor the Forces Armées Rwandaises (FAR). It
allowed Hutu combatants and civilians to cross the border into Zaire, resulting
in a profound destabilization of Eastern Zaire.
The RPF defeated the Hutu government in mid-July 1994 and
put an end to the genocide. About 1 million Hutu (civilians and combatants) had
moved to the Kivu region of Zaire where UN
Human Right Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had established a number of
refugee camps near the Rwanda border.
Figure 12 Paul Kagame, Tutsi president
of Rwanda since 1994
The Hutus re-established in the camps the political and
military structures and leadership that were responsible for the genocide in
Rwanda. The FAR and Interahmwe forces regrouped and launched offensives against
the new Tutsi dominated government of Paul
Kagame in Rwanda. The Hutu refugees started attacking the Congolese Tutsis
with military support from the Congolese (Zairian) army. The Rwandan vice
president Paul Kagame repeatedly requested from the UN the disarmament of the
Hutu militias in Zaire. The UN lost control over the camps. Medecins Sans Frontiere withdrew.
7.1
The First Congo (Zaire) War
In 1993, local Kivu government leaders led a quasi-ethnic
cleansing campaign against the Congolese Tutsi in north Kivu. Then, in
mid-1996, local politicians and administrators, in cooperation with elements of
the Mobutu regime, planned an ethnic-cleansing campaign aimed against the Banyamulenge in south Kivu (the ethnic
Tutsi of south Kivu).
Figure 13
President Mobutu Sese Seko president of Zaire (now DRC) from 1965 to 1997
In September 1996, the Vangu report issued by the Commission
on Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons of the Zairian parliament declared
that there was evidence that Burundi and Rwanda had forged an alliance to
create a Tutsiland—a new geographical entity that would cover not only Rwanda
and Burundi, but part of Uganda and eastern Zaire, as well—and thus recommended
the unconditional expulsion of all Rwandaphone peoples from the Congo. The
Banyamulenge became the target of the Mobutu regime that had supported the now
defeated Habyarimana government in Rwanda. Threatened of expulsion, the
Banyamulenge undertook a pre-emptive strike against the Forces Armées Zairoises (FAZ) and the now two year old Hutu refugee
camps in the Kivus. Immediately, Rwandan government forces crossed the border
and joined the offensive to eliminate the Hutu militias and strike the Mobutu
regime. Hutu refugees fled back into Rwanda.
The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, also joined the
Rwandan effort, convinced that rebels based in Zaire were behind an insurrection movement in
Uganda. Similarly, Angola joined the alliance against the Mobutu government to
fight the rebels from the National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) based in Zaire.
Rwanda, Uganda
and Angola created inside Zaire a revolutionary party, the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo (AFDL)
under the leadership
of Laurent Désiré Kabila.
The World community was convinced that Mobutu and his cruel dictatorial
regime had to go. So neither the UN nor the Organisation of African Union (OAU) condemned the invasion.
At the end of 1996, the alliance between the Mobutu regime,
the Interahmwe, the FAR and UNITA were defeated; they retreated not without looting,
raping, and killing Congolese civilians. Laurent Désiré Kabila put together a
force of 10,000 militiamen in February 1997.
Figure 14 Laurent Désiré Kabila
A growing humanitarian crisis was taking place within Zaire
between 1996 and 1997 where civilians on both sides were used as targets or
human shields. An OAU conference was held in Nairobi on November 5th,
1996 to address the crisis. Participating countries were Uganda, Zambia,
Rwanda, Eritrea, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Cameroon. The outcome was a request
for an immediate cease-fire. The idea that a multinational force was needed was
expressed in UN Security Council resolution 1078.
On November 15, 1996, Security Council resolution 1080
authorized a Canadian-led “ . . . temporary multinational force to facilitate
the immediate return of humanitarian organizations and the effective delivery
by civilian relief organizations of humanitarian aid to alleviate the immediate
suffering of displaced persons, refugees and civilians at risk in eastern
Zaire, and to facilitate the voluntary, orderly repatriation of refugees by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as well as the voluntary return
of displaced persons”.
Disarming the combatants was not on the agenda.
The
multinational forces ended up not deploying at all under the excuse of a change of situation
on the ground where Hutu forces entered Rwanda in a counter-attack.
On February 18, 1997, the Security Council adopted a
five-point peace plan for eastern Zaire.
The plan called for:
§ the
immediate cessation of hostilities
§ the
withdrawal of all external forces, including mercenaries
§ respect
for the national sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Zaire, and other
states of the Great Lakes region
§ the
protection of all refugees and the facilitation of humanitarian assistance
§ the
peaceful settlement of the conflict through dialogue, elections, and the
convening of an international conference
Talks between the Mobutu regime and the rebels took place
throughout 1997 without reaching any agreement, while the rebel forces were making
gains on the terrain and committing mass murders against the Hutu refugees.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan accused Laurent Kabila of a
slow extermination of refugees. The UN pressured Kabila to resolve the refugee
problem yet he continued to prevent the UN personnel access to massacre sites
for two reasons: his campaign had to be perceived as a domestic revolutionary
campaign (despite the large contribution of foreign troops) and his ally -the
Rwanda government- was concerned of being identified as the author of a
retaliation massacre.
On May 17, 1997, the anti-Mobutu alliance marched into
Kinshasa without opposition while Mobutu left the country. This ended the First
War. Kabila became president of the République Démocratique du Congo where multi-parties and political
opposition were non-existent. This is when the Republic of Zaire was renamed Democratic
Republic of Congo.
7.2
The Second Congo War
Kabila in power had failed on his promise made to Uganda,
Rwanda, and Angola to defeat the insurgency groups threatening the borders with
these allied countries. At the end of
July 1998, as the relations with the government of Rwanda were deteriorating,
Kabila requested that Rwandan army retreat home.
In August 1998, an anti-Kabila movement, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) was
created starting by the desertion of Congolese army brigades stationed in Goma
and Bukavu. They were joined by soldiers from Rwanda and Uganda led by James
Kabarebe who convinced more Congolese soldiers to join the rebellion along with
politicians forming the RCD.
Atrocities were committed by the Kabila loyalists against
the new RCD militias and the Congolese Tutsis. This was the start of the First African Continental War.
Angola, convinced that the RCD had struck a deal with UNITA, sided with the Kabila regime and launched a counter attack against the Rwanda–Uganda–RCD forces, effectively saving Kabila.
Angola, convinced that the RCD had struck a deal with UNITA, sided with the Kabila regime and launched a counter attack against the Rwanda–Uganda–RCD forces, effectively saving Kabila.
At this point in the conflict, we had on the rebellion
side: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Congolese deserters and politicians having
created the RCD.
On the side of the Kabila regime, we had: Angola, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, and Chad providing military contingents, Sudan for air support and
Libya for financial support.
The Kabila regime enjoyed international recognition and legitimacy including at the UN.
The Kabila regime enjoyed international recognition and legitimacy including at the UN.
At the beginning of 1999, the RCD had split into the RCD-ML (Mouvement de Liberation) backed by Uganda and the RCD-Goma backed by Rwanda after a disagreement. A third rebel group the Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo (MLC) was created with Uganda support. Together, the 3 rebel groups held the eastern half of the country.
On July 10th, 1999, the Lusaka Agreement for a cease-fire in the DRC was signed by all
parties in the conflict. The agreement called for the disarmament of foreign
militias in Congo, exchange of prisoners and the deployment of UN Peacekeepers.
The Lusaka Agreement established also a Joint
Monitoring Commission (JMC) composed of representatives of all
belligerents.
On November 30th, 1999 the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUC).
By February 2000, the UN intervention force had 5500 military personnel which were not enough for a peacekeeping mandate of this magnitude.
On November 30th, 1999 the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUC).
By February 2000, the UN intervention force had 5500 military personnel which were not enough for a peacekeeping mandate of this magnitude.
Laurent Kabila was assassinated on January 16th, 2001. His son Joseph Kabila took over the leadership and permitted the full deployment of UN forces. The request for voluntary compliance from armed groups to abandon their weapons led these groups to go underground.
7.3
The Third Congo War
After the change of regime in spring 2001, Joseph Kabila
rearmed and mobilized the Interahmwe/ex-FAR, known as the Alliance pour la Libération du Rwanda (ALiR). These Rwandan Hutu
troops moved from the Kinshasa controlled part of RDC to eastern Congo were they
committed cease-fire violations in the Kivu.
Kinshasa and Kigali agreed to the withdrawal of Rwandan troops in exchange for the dismantlement of ALiR on July 30th, 2002. Uganda agreed to withdraw its troops on September 6th, 2002. The power vacuum in eastern Congo raised the level of violence.
Kinshasa and Kigali agreed to the withdrawal of Rwandan troops in exchange for the dismantlement of ALiR on July 30th, 2002. Uganda agreed to withdraw its troops on September 6th, 2002. The power vacuum in eastern Congo raised the level of violence.
The Pretoria Agreement of December 16th, 2002 recommended
to form a transitional government with
Kabila as president and 4 vice presidents from rebel and civil society
leadership. The first multi-party elections were held on July 30th,
2006. The election resulted in a street fight in Kinshasa where MONUC had to
intervene. Elections were called again in October 2006 and Joseph Kabila took
70% of the votes.
This ongoing war has been the deadliest conflict since World War II with an estimated 5.4 million people killed by combats, disease and famine.
