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), CNDD-FDD (Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense pour la démocratie, National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy), 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 Burundian Hutu rebel group CNDD-FDD, as well as the Rwandan Hutu group AliR supported by the government to fight the insurgency.

Rwanda’s and Burundi’s role in the region is central for the understanding of the conflict between RCD and ALiR, CNDD-FDD, Mayi Mayi. Rwanda and Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsis) were important for President Kabila's victory over ex-President Mobutu in 1997. Burundi had then sided with Rwanda and Kabila but been preoccupied with fighting its own rebel groups the CNDD and Palipehutu on Congolese soil. 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, ALIR and CNDD-FDD. RCD, meanwhile, claimed they were fighting in the Kivu regions to cleanse the area of negative forces including ALiR, CNDD-FDD, 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 Mayi Mayi, Hutu, and Burundian insurgents attacked Bukavu in mid-January 1999, and the small towns of Bitare, Muresa and Kitutu in September 1999. In April 2000 fighting between the ALiR, CNDD-FDD, Mayi Mayi alliance and RCD was reported from several villages surrounding Uvira. In October 2001 the last fighting in this alliance occurred as RCD claimed to have recaptured Kaziniya (Kalemeie) a port on the shores of Lake Tanganyika after several months of fighting with government-backed forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ALiR, CNDD-FDD, Mayi Mayi alliance had briefly occupied the Maniema capital of Kindu to ease the military pressure on Fizi. But, with the support of the Burundian army and their Mi-24 helicopter gunship, RCD managed to retake Fizi, one month after its occupation, and chased the rebels towards the ports of Kalemie until it was retaken on 17 October. After this date AliR disappeared as a group and therefore the alliance ceased to exist.

The non-state conflict between ALiR, CNDD-FDD, Mayi Mayi and RCD and is first included in UCDP data in 1999. In January that year clashes between the groups had resulted in at least 25 battle-related deaths after an attack of Bukavu.