How DR Congo Conflicts Intertwined Over Time
The conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the deadliest the world has ever witnessed. One report estimates the death toll at 5.4 million while a more conservative count puts it at one million deaths.
Different scholars have attributed the recurrent conflict to ethnicity and nationality. In recent years much of the focus has been on the illegal exploitation of Congolese natural resources.
Most scholarly works identify a conflict in North Kivu that dominated headlines in 1993, as the starting point of violence in the region. But based on research, The Conversation's Jacob Cloete concludes that the conflict is two distinct conflicts that became intertwined over one-and-a-half centuries. The first is a much older conflict which started during colonialism and has as its source a local struggle for belonging.
The second is relatively new, and is a regional contest for survival between the Hutu and Tutsi elites. Read More...
