SUMMARY
The conflict between RCD (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, Congolese Rally for Democracy), commonly known as RCD-Goma, and AliR (PALIR: Peuple en Armes pour la Liberation du Rwanda, Armed People for the Liberation of Rwanda), Mayi Mayi militias should be seen as part the DR. Congo (Zaire) war fought during the time period 1998-2003, where RCD has been one of the main rebel groups fighting the government and Mayi Mayi local defense groups and the Rwandan Hutu group PALIR supported by the government to fight the insurgency.
Rwanda’s role in the region is central for the understanding of the conflict between ALiR, Mayi Mayi and RCD. Rwanda and Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsis) were important for President Kabila's victory over ex-President Mobutu in 1997. Rwanda had made up a bulk of Kabila's fighting forces but their main excuse for fighting Mobutu was to fight their own rebels that had perpetrated the genocide (AliR). However during the 1997-1998 interlude, when President Kabila tried to build a national power base, relations with Rwanda deteriorated. At the same time the situation in the Kivus was sliding into deeper and deeper ethnic tensions. As President Kabila moved away from his Rwandese allies, he almost automatically found himself in alliance both with the local autochthonous militias which were now springing up under the name of Mayi Mayi, as well as with the different Hutu militias. By late 1998, after a new regional war had started, the Mayi Mayi progressively turned from a folkloric phenomenon into a major political one central in the fight against the foreign invader. At the same time they built alliances with the different Hutu militias residing in the area. RCD, meanwhile, claimed they were fighting in the Kivu regions to cleanse the area of negative forces including ALiR, Mayi Mayi militia. In different periods of the conflict the alliance formed by different pro-Kabila government groups fought either together against RCD and Rwandan forces or separately. For example, ALiR, Mayi Mayi clashed with RCD in Goma in September 1998.
The non-state conflict between ALiR, Mayi Mayi and RCD and was first included in UCDP data in 1998. In September that year clashes in Goma between the two sides had resulted in at least 25 battle-related deaths.
