CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF: Invasions and Internal Strife, 1998–

The Democratic Republic of Congo* became the site of a multilateral war soon after the rebel leader Laurent Kabila, with backing from Rwanda and Uganda, overthrew the decades-long dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Kabila’s uprising is often referred to as the First Congo War, and the conflict that began in 1998-the subject of this article-is called the Second Congo War.