SUMMARY
The original RCD was formed on 12 August 1998 by various political elements opposing President Laurent Kabila. In May 1999 the RCD split into two factions, RCD-ML whose leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba was allied to Uganda and RCD-Goma whose leader Emile Ilunga was allied to Rwanda. The troops led by Wamba dia Wamba in the 1999 split, announced their rebel faction RCD-ML in September 1999 (The group was first called RCD-Kisangani due to the location of their headquarters, later it was sometimes known as RCD-Bunia after moving their headquarters to Bunia.).
In the beginning, the group, which consisted of only 2500 troops, was headquartered in Kisangani but was forced to move to Bunia after clashes with the stronger RCD-Goma in October 1999. Professor Wamba dia Wamba was clear about his preference of a negotiated settlement of the conflict. This idea was compatible with a Ugandan idea to politically empower the Congolese in areas of control. However the population continued to reject the movement. RCD-ML collapsed when Mbusa Nyamwisi, the prime minister of the rebels, and Tibasiima Atenyi started to recruit their own armies of ethnic kinsmen. Nyamwisi found support among his Mukonjo tribesmen in Beni and Atenyi had Hema supporters in Ituri.
Attempts to overthrow Wamba dia Wamba in April and August 2000 were overcome by the President of Uganda and his army. Fighting that had begun in September ended when the rebels were transferred to Kampala. Towards the end of 2000, the split, which had produced fighting and approximately 40 deaths, was definitive. The split in the RCD-ML produced several militias and two new factions: RCD-ML dissident Roger Lumbala formed a movement called RCD-National, and in Beni, the governor, Bwanakawa Nyonyi, set up a short-lived faction named RCD-Populaire. In January 2001 Uganda tried to solve the leadership question in RCD-ML by merging MLC and RCD-ML into FLC. This alliance did not work as hoped and when FLC split back into the separate MLC and RCD-ML groups, Mbusa Nyamwisi assumed leadership of the RCD-ML. The Nyamwisi faction became known as RCD-Kisangani-ML, as Wamba continued to claim legitimacy as leader of the original RCD-ML. On 19 April 2002, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba signed the “Political agreement on consensual management of the transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo” peace agreement after this event he disappeared from the political scene in Congo.
RCD-ML has been involved in the non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
