Civil War in Congo

The recent Civil War in Congo has been a bloody flight, causing more then 3.3 million deaths in just 4 short years.1 Various rebel and ethnic groups have have been involved in the violence, fighting over Congo 's rich natural resources or engaged in a bitter ethnic war. With so many opposing factions, it has made reaching a solution difficult. While a rough peace treaty has been established, sporadic fighting pops up in the country everyday. The people of Congo are being pushed farther into poverty and starvation can 't handle the fighting for very much longer. I propose that the solution to the post-Civil War violence in Congo is to rid the country of all foreign nations and their problems, namely the Rwandans, and to get combatants inside of the country to hold a summit and find a peaceful and fair resolution to the problem, with a superpower like the United States acting as host and mediator. Once all quarrels are amended, the Congolese can start to focus on a economic strategy for rebuilding the country. Congo 's Civil War began on November 2nd, 1998 when Laurent Kabila tried to drive out Rwandan militants who helped him overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko.2 Sese Seko came into power in 1966 when he led a rebellion to overthrow the government of Patrice Lumumbra. Sese Seko led to Africanizing of the country by requiring that all citizens drop their Christan names, and by renaming all the geographical locations with more African names.3 During the 1980 's Sese Seko 's government received support from the United States, in response to communism 's rising popularity in Africa. Because of the misuse of the funds and wealth generated by natural resources, the rich got richer and the poor fell farther into poverty. Sese Seko abused Congo 's natural resources and eventually helped lead the country into a state of economic ruin. In 1997 Sese Seko was overthrown by Laurent Kabila. When Kabila took over the country it was in terrible condition but he

Cited: "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" Conflict in Congo, PBS, October 22, 1998. Transcript. Accessed 06 March 2005 Garten, Jeffrey E, "Don 't Just Throw Money At The World 's Poor" BusinessWeek, March 7, 2005 Farah, Global Insights. New York: Macmillan McGraw-Hill School Publishing Company, 1994. 10 "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" Conflict in Congo, PBS, October 22, 1998. Transcript. Accessed 06 March 2005 11 Garten, Jeffrey E, "Don 't Just Throw Money At The World 's Poor" BusinessWeek, March 7, 2005