CAUSES OF CIVIL WAR IN CONGO

Soon after attaining their independent some of African nation engaged them self in conflicts as their political leaders had different interests and ideologies examples of that countries are Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Namibia and others

Below are some of main causes of Congo ongoing war

The roots of this war go back to the 1994 civil war and genocide of the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda by the Hutu ethnic group. Over a half million Tutsi and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by the Hutu-run government and army.

 This war ended with the Tutsi in control of Rwanda, but hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees and most surviving Hutu soldiers had fled to neighboring Congo, where new dictator Laurent Kabila allowed them to conduct cross-border raids into Rwanda. At the same time, a lot of bad feelings developed in the Congo against the Tutsi of both Rwanda and those native to eastern Congo. This is largely due to the role of the Rwandan (Tutsi) army in helping Kabila win his own rebellion against the government of former dictator Mobuto Sese Seko in 1997. 

 Many Congolese saw the Tutsi as having too much control over their country and Kabila encouraged these feelings as a way to cement his own power. As a result of all this, the Tutsi of Rwanda encouraged the Tutsi and other anti-Kabila forces to rebel in 1998, with the Rwandan army actively aiding them in the war. Rwanda saw this as one way to eliminate the Hutu rebel problem in the border areas. Forces from Burundi and Uganda, at the time two strong allies of Rwanda also took part.

Burundi has a similar problem between Tutsi and Hutus and Uganda wished to strike at its own rebels who were hiding in the Congo's border areas. Kabila called in aid from Angola, (who had also helped him take power in 1997), as well as from Zimbabwe and Namibia. Angola saw this as a chance to enter into southern Congo to attack its own UNITA rebels, with whom the Angolan government had been at war since 1975 (The Angolan War also ended in 2002.).

 Namibia is an ally of the Angolan government and also has had problems with the UNITA rebels in the border area they share with Angola. Zimbabwe also backs the Kabila government. For a very short time, the nation of Chad also sent troops to aid Kabila. While the government and the rebels continue to fight and occasionally negotiate, the "allies" from both sides are taking advantage of the territory they now occupy in Congo to extract natural resources and send them back home.

 Resources such as gold, silver, diamonds, and others. Needless to say, all this fighting and the presence of so many foreign troops has caused a horrible loss of life, mostly among civilians, in the Congo. By the way, even though they are allies against Kabila, troops from Rwanda and Uganda have engaged in bloody fighting against each other largely over the question of who would control a mineral rich area in eastern Congo. 

 The latest fighting in the eastern part of Congo involves a rebel group known as The March 23 Movement, better know as M23, led by Bosco Ntaganda, and covertly supported by Uganda and Rwanda. The United Nations is also involved, trying to aid the Kinshasa government. Congo is truly a mess.