SUMMARY
The Marxist-Leninist party PCT (Parti Congolais du Travail, Congolese Labour Party) dominated the political life of the country from 1968 until the early 1990s, when a democratisation process was initiated. These decades were characterised by turbulent politics, with consecutive presidents seizing power through unconstitutional means. With regards to ethnicity, the PCT was dominated by the northern Mbochi group and with the initiation of the democratisation process, elites from other ethnic groups scrambled for power. Thus started the intrastate conflict fought in Congo in 1993-94, 1997-99 and 2002.
Following the country’s first multiparty elections in 1992 and 1993, Congo was led by president Pascal Lissouba, and his party the UPADS (Union Panafricaine pour la Démocratie Sociale, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy). Hailing from the so-called Nibolek region in the southern part of the country, Lissouba was from a sub-group of the large Bacongo ethnic group. His reign came to be fraught by intrastate conflict and ethnic tensions and he soon realised that to be able to keep his hold on power he had to create his own militias. The majority of the soldiers in the national army, the FAC (Forces armées congolaises, Armed Forces of Congo) were northerners and thus likely to side with former president Denis Sassou-Nguessou, wherefore their loyalty could not be trusted.
Thus, during Lissouba’s rule, the armed forces on the government’s side were largely made up of a number of militias. The Aubevillois, Zulus, Cocoyes and Mambas were recruited on an ethnic basis and answered directly to the president. The objective of the militias differed. The Aubevillois’ main task was to protect the official buildings of the state, but due to its military capacity, it was also used for offensive purposes throughout the capital. The Zulus, in turn, was a more defensive militia that protected the quarters inhabited by UPADS’ electorate. After the cessation of hostilities in January 1994, both the Aubevillois and the Zulus were officially dissolved. However, Lissouba soon embarked on creating a new militia, the Cocoyes, which was largely made up of former Aubevillois and Zulus who had not been integrated into the security forces. Unlike its’ predecessors the new militia was mainly stationed in secondary towns in the president’s home region. In the context of the outbreak of renewed fighting in 1997, Lissouba also created the Mambas, who served as self-defence units tasked with protecting a certain local community or neighbourhood.
The government under Pascal Lissouba enjoyed the support of Angolan rebel groups UNITA and FLEC. Having supported these two groups by allowing them on Congolese territory for much of his period in office, UNITA and FLEC had a keen interest to keep Lissouba’s regime in power. Thus, when the fighting restarted in 1997, both groups sent fighters in support of the government. However, in late October 1997 the Cobra rebel group seized power, aided by Angolan troops, and Lissouba fled the country.
On 25 October 1997 Denis Sassou-Nguessou was officially inaugurated as president of the Republic of Congo and once again northerners dominated the political life of the country. Attempting to decrease his dependence on the Cobra militia, Sassou demobilised some units, and rebuilt the FAC. Furthermore, many ex-Cobras were integrated into the army. However, some Cobras units were kept intact and these played an important role as auxiliaries to the FAC in offensives in the Pool and Nibolek regions as the conflict erupted once more.
The most important backer for Sassou’s government’s was neighbouring Angola. After securing the regime change in October, the Angolan forces stayed on in Congo until late 2002, with the number of troops peaking at 2500. Furthermore, France, which had assisted the Cobras with weapons during 1997 continued to support Sassou when he seized power, mainly by assisting in the restructuring and training of the FAC.
The government of the Republic of Congo has been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
