SUMMARY
The Cobras was a rebel group fighting the government of the Republic of Congo in 1993 and then again in 1997, when it succeeded in overthrowing the country’s first democratically elected government.
The background to the formation of the group lies in the democratisation process that was initiated in Congo in 1991 and the ensuing political turmoil. With the legalisation of multi-party politics ethnic groups who had been politically marginalised since independence got the opportunity to challenge the dominant position of the PCT (Parti Congolais du Travail, Congolese Labour Party), which was dominated by the northern Mbochi ethnic group. Leader of PCT was Denis Sassou-Nguessou, who had been president between 1979 and 1992. As elites sought to mobilise their ethnic constituencies to gain political power the political climate hardened and ethnic relations deteriorated. After the country’s 1992-93 legislative elections, the political party UPADS (Union Panafricaine pour la Démocratie Sociale, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy), which represented the ethnic groups living in the southern provinces of Niari, Bouenza and Lékoumou, was awarded victory. The result was however rejected by the opposition, which claimed that the process had been fraudulent and called on a campaign of civil disobedience. In the ensuing ethnic violence all major political parties created militias, with the PCT forming the Cobras.
The PCT was able to mobilise fighters both by appealing to ethnic and regional solidarity, whereby the ethnic group that came to dominate the Cobras was the Mbochis, and by promising pay and future employment in the armed forces upon victory. These civilian recruits were trained by a small group of soldiers that were part of Sassou’s security guard. In the years between the two phases of fighting, a majority of the Cobras accompanied Sassou to his hometown of Oyo in Cuvette, where they were subsequently joined by officers of northern origin who had been retired without pay from the Congolese army by the President, Pascal Lissouba. As the newcomers enrolled young men from their own villages, the Cobras continued to grow.
Within the country, the Cobras were initially allied with the Ninja militia group, set up by the political party MCDDI (Mouvement congolais pour la démocratie et le développement intégral, the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development) in 1993. With the parties PCT and MCDDI being allied in the political field, the militias cooperated on the battlefield in the first year of the conflict. The alliance weakened quickly, however, and in September 1997 it broke down completely when MCDDI leader Bérnard Kolelas opted to join the government of Lissouba.
The Cobras had a number of powerful backers who were all striving for a regime change in the country. During Sassou’s period as president, he had sustained very close relations with France. When UPADS leader Pascal Lissouba came to power he strove to distance himself from the former colonial power and to find his own backers. Subsequently, he cultivated his relationship with the USA. Worried by this, France and the French state-owned company Elf-Aquitaine, who had large interests in Congo’s oil industry, supported the Cobras in their struggle for a change of government by sending arms to Sassou via Gabon.
Another supporter of the Cobras was neighbouring Angola. As President Lissouba, during his time in office, supported the Angolan rebel groups UNITA and FLEC by, among other things, allowing them to maintain rear bases on Congolese territory, the Angolan government had a strong interest in a regime change in Brazzaville. Thus, through the first nine months of 1997 Angola supplied the Cobra fighters with weapons, as well as trained and transported them. Subsequently, in October the neighbouring country stepped up its involvement by also sending troops that fought alongside the Cobras. With the Angolan backing, Brazzaville fell within only a little over a week. On 25 October 1997 Sassou-Nguessou was officially inaugurated as president of the Republic of Congo. While parts of the rebel group were subsequently integrated into the army, the Cobras continued to exist as a pro-government militia, fighting alongside the army in the following years of conflict.
During its conflict with the government, Denis Sassou-Nguessou served as the Cobra militia’s political leader, while the group was militarily led by among others Michel Ngkala and Pierre Oba. However, the structure of the group was relatively decentralized, consisting of a number of stables or units organized along village lines with the leaders of these units holding much influence over the fighters in the field.
The Cobras have been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
