SUMMARY
The Cocoyes was a Congolese militia group that was engaged in an armed conflict over government power in 1997-1999. Furthermore, the group’s political leadership ruled the country between 31 August 1992 and 15 October 1997, and during this time, UCDP regards the Cocoyes a part of the government side in the conflict, together with the regular armed forces, FAC (Forces armées congolaises).
The background to the formation of the Cocoyes lies in the democratization process that was initiated in Congo in 1991 and the ensuing political turmoil. With the legalization of multi-party politics, ethnic groups who had been politically marginalized 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. As elites sought to mobilize 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.
As for the new UPADS government, it had doubts about the loyalties of the country’s armed forces, FAC, and subsequently established three militias that can be seen as precursors to the Cocoyes: “Réserve Ministerielle”, the Aubevillouis and the Zoulous. These three militias were dissolved after a 1994 ceasefire, but UPADS leader, and then-President Pascal Lissouba remained skeptical of FAC and created a new militia – the Cocoyes – the same year. In 1997, when fighting re-erupted, UPADS set up yet another militia: the Mambas. When Lissouba’s government fell, and PCT regained power with the help of its Cobra militia, and Angolan troops, all pro-Lissouba fighters fled Brazzaville and hid and re-grouped in the south of the country. By late 1997, the name Cocoyes denoted all pro-Lissouba factions.
The initiative to form what would become the Cocoyes militia came from then-president Pascal Lissouba, and during his years in power and at least for some time after his ouster, it was him that the Cocoyes were loyal to. However, his ability to actually lead the group after he fled the country in October 1997 is questionable. In fact, even though he publicly supported the militia’s military struggle, he stopped short of admitting to direct involvement with it. There doesn’t seem to have been a single, overarching leader replacing Lissouba after he fled. Second-tier political leaders were also in hiding, but these appeared to have limited control over the fighters; by and large, during 1998-1999, centralized political control over the movement withered. However, a number of notable former military officers remained important persons in Cocoye ranks, and participated in the political discussions regarding the violence, notably Emmanuel Boungouandza, Pierre Mboungou-Mboungou, and Francois Bouesse. As central control withered, the group fractured organization-wise, splintering into several smaller factions such as Résistance Sud-Sud, Bana Dol, MNLC (Mouvement national pour la liberation du Congo) and MNLC-rénové. Also on the ground, the group split up in smaller so-called stables, which were led by gang leaders that were referred to as “chefs d'curie”. These appears to have been at least loosely attached to a higher military leader, such as Boungouandza or Mboungou-Mboungou.
It is difficult to establish the size of the Cocoye militia. In 1997, before the fall of President Lissouba, it was believed to contain around 1000 men, but after he was ousted, a large number of soldiers sympathetic to him defected and joined the group, bolstering its numbers. In all, it is estimated that some 10 800 Cocoye combatants demobilized between 1997 and 2000.
As mentioned earlier, ethnicity became highly politicized in Congo during the democratization process. UPADS as a party had its largest following among the ethnic groups living in southern provinces of Niari, Bouenza, and Lékoimoi – often referred to as Niboland. While Niboland was in fact home to a number of different ethnic groups (the main ones being the Nzabi, Pounou, Bateke, Kongo, Babembé and Zambi), they during the 1990s, came to form a joint identity of being “Nibolek”, i.e. from either of these three regions. Together, the Nibolek constituted the largest ethnic grouping in the country, and it was among them that the Cocoye leadership recruited its fighters. While the military leadership of the group tended to have a background in FAC, the rank and file fighters were generally un- or underemployed young men, both recruited among Niboleks living in Brazzaville and im Niboland. It was also in Niboland that the Cocoyes carried out its armed struggle after PCT’s ascent to power in October 1997.
In the first phase of the conflict in 1993, when UPADS was in power, the regime was challenged militarily by the Cobras and the Ninjas. However, in 1997, as the conflict re-started, alliances shifted, as Lissouba was able to convince Bernard Koleleas, leader of the party MCDDI and subsequently the Ninjas , to switch sides and join his government. A little over a month later, when their joint government was ousted by PCT and the Cobras, Cocoyes and the Ninjas found themselves as allies on the opposition side. However, on the ground, there was little actual cooperation between the two, and there were even reports of Cocoyes and Ninja units attacking one another in order to steal weapons. By early 1999, close to all Ninja factions had been coopted by a new rebel outfit: the Ntsiloulous. This new group and the Cocoyes found some common ground and formed a political coalition, called the CNR (Conseil National de la Résistance, National Resistance Council) in September 1999, with the intention of increasing the political leverage they could bring to the negotiation table in the upcoming peace talks. However, the coalition was short-lived. After the parties had signed a peace agreement in December 1999, the Cocoyes agreed to disband and end their armed struggle, while the Ntsiloulous were unhappy with the implementation of the accord and continued their struggle. Aside from the faltering cooperation with fellow Congolese rebels, the Cocoyes were supported by Angolan rebel groups UNITA and FLEC. The links between Lissouba and the two rebel outfits dated back to when the former was in power, and lent his support to the Angolan rebels. With the Cocoyes in opposition, most sources agree that the Angolan rebels returned the favor, even though it is unclear exactly what the support entailed. The one piece of precise information available was that the FLEC separatists provided bases on territory under their control across the border in Cabinda in 1999.
As mentioned above, the Cocoye leadership signed a peace agreement in December 1999 and with that, the Cocoyes were officially dissolved. While demobilization was slow to start with, the process eventually got off the ground, and by the end of the year 2000, all Cocoye units had been disbanded.
