Second Congo War

The Second Congo War began in 1998, when Kabila's former Rwandan and Ugandan backers turned against his government and backed a new rebellion, drawing in the armies of numerous African nations, including Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad on Kabila's side, along with a large number of domestic and foreign armed groups. The scale of foreign involvement led some observers to call it "Africa's World War," and the resulting violence, disease and displacement across the vast country are estimated by researchers to have caused an exceptionally high death toll, among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War. A formal peace agreement was signed in 2002 and a transitional government was installed the following year, formally ending the war in 2003, although armed violence in the country's eastern provinces persisted for years afterward.