Democratic Republic Of The Congo (drc) Civil War (1996-2003)

Congo (Kinshasa) is a country with vast territories, abundant natural resources and important strategic location. It is known as"the material warehouse of the world"and"the heart of Africa". However, Congo (Kinshasa) that has great development potential became African"powder keg". The Congo (Kinshasa) civil war (1996-2003) which involved Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and other African countries was actually an unprecedented scale regional war and caused millions of deaths and numerous homeless people. The peace and development of the entire African continent were severely destroyed.Congo (Kinshasa) civil war was not an accidental incident. It had deep historical and realistic reasons and it was the result of many internal and external contradictions in Congo (Kinshasa). Because of the ethnic conflicts in the eastern of Congo (Kinshasa), the war broke out. It lasted nearly 7 years, and was divided into two phases (1996.10-1997.5, 1998.5-2003.4). During those years, the parties which were involved in the war volcanically fought each other and were constantly transforming allies. Through the involuted phenomena, we find three characteristics: First, the civil war was a regional conflict. Many countries had different motivations were involved and they played an important role in the war. Second, the civil war was caused by the outbreak of ethnic conflicts in African Great Lakes region. Throughout the war, there were always ethnic conflicts. Third, resources were an important element affecting the war. In a sense the civil war was a battle for controlling natural resources.The author uses four sections to analyze Congo (Kinshasa) civil war. The first part recalls the history of Congo (Kinshasa) before 1990s, and explores the historical roots of the civil war. The second part systematically analyzes the domestic and international backgrounds of Congo (Kinshasa) civil war, and introduces the evolution process of the war in detail, especially the different motivations of the main belligerent states and Western countries'attitudes to the war. The third part intensively analyzes the close relationship between ethnic conflicts, scrambling for resource and the civil war. The fourth part analyzes the devastating effects caused by the war, including the serious economic crisis, a huge humanitarian disaster, the failure of nation-building, and the impact of war on African integration. In the epilogue we summarized the characteristics of Congo (Kinshasa) Civil war and reference for other African countries.