From the AFDL to the CNDP : identity and civil War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

D.Litt. et Phil. (Political Science)The decree of the democratisation process in the DRC in April 1990 by President Mobutu triggered, among other things, inter-elite struggles for political power fought through, among other channels, ethnic mobilisation. As a result, the Kivu region experienced unprecedented levels of organised violence between (mainly but not exclusively) the so-called autochthonous communities and the Banyarwanda against the backdrop of unresolved issues pertaining to land rights, immigration and citizenship. By the mid-1990s, these internal problems to the DRC – compounded by security concerns, as well as economic and geo-strategic interests of some regional states, Western powers and multinational corporations – set the DRC on the path of successive rebellions. This study has focused on three of these rebellions, referred to as the First, Second and Third Congo Wars, led respectively by the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Zaïre / Congo (AFDL, 1996-1997), the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD, 1998-2003) and the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP, 2006-2009). The overall objective of this study was to analyse the role played by the Banyarwanda identity in the ignition, maintenance and management of the three rebellions mentioned above. More specifically, the study sought to assess the relevance of the assumption spread among large parts of the Congolese population, the media and existing scholarly literature that the Banyarwanda identity was a key factor – if not the main driver – behind the three wars under scrutiny ..