ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a quarter century of instability, violence, war, and extreme human suffering in Central Africa. Considered in the past as peripheral, land-locked, and politically and economically uninteresting, in the 1990s the African Great Lakes region found itself at the heart of a profound geopolitical recomposition with continental repercussions. Nzongola writes that the major determinant of the present conflict and instability in the Great Lakes Region is the decay of the state and its instruments of rule in the Congo. In the mid-1990s insurgent forces of several neighboring countries used the territory of Zaire as a base for attack and retreat. They included the Allied Democratic Forces from Uganda, several groups from Burundi, and Angolan UNITA. The linkage between military engagement and illegal economic activities was a clear trend. Indeed, pillaging was no longer an unfortunate side effect of war; rather, economic interests became war's prime driving force.
