Democratic Republic of the Congo Flag
Flags of the World > Democratic Republic of the Congo Flag
Brief History. Established as a Belgian colony in 1908, the Republic of the Congo gained its independence in 1960. Since 1997 the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC; formerly called Zaire) has been rent by ethnic strife and civil war, touched off by a massive inflow in 1994 of refugees from the fighting in Rwanda and Burundi. Troops from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Chad, and Sudan intervened to support the Kinshasa regime. A cease-fire was signed on 10 July 1999 by the DROC, Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Rwanda, and Congolese armed rebel groups RCD-G and MLC, but sporadic fighting continued. Kabila was assassinated on 16 January 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state on 26 January 2001. Despite taking a radically different approach than his father, the new president has been equally unsuccessful in ending the war.
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