History Of The FARDC

The military history  of the  Democratic Republic of Congo  covers about a century and a half of history  across Central Africa  but also in  East Africa . This article is therefore a synthesis of the histories of the many conflicts that have bloodied the country and the region. The geographical area that constitutes the current  Democratic Republic of Congo  (successively called  the Congo Free State ,  Belgian Congo ,  Congo-Kinshasa , and  Zaire ) was the scene of violent clashes very early on. Indeed, as soon as the territory was unified and annexed by  Leopold II of Belgium  during the  partition of Africa  in  1885 , the latter had to impose his authority by force on the peoples over whom he declared himself sovereign; in particular, he confronted  the indigenous states of  Maniema on several occasions between 1892  and  1894 , who contested his supremacy. Having come under  Belgian domination  , strictly speaking, Congolese troops were also involved in the African theatres of the two  world wars , before being, after independence in  1960 , confronted with a civil war of rare violence, which resulted in the seizure of power by  Mobutu . The latter brought the country into the Western camp during the  Cold War , and engaged, during the  1970s , his armed forces in the fight against communism in  central  and  southern Africa , particularly in  Angola . Supported against all odds by its traditional partners, the country experienced relative peace during the following decade. But in the mid-  1990s , the  humanitarian crisis and population movements caused by the  Rwandan Genocide profoundly destabilized the east of the country, and in  1996 Mobutu  's army   was unable to resist  Laurent-Désiré Kabila 's rebel movement for long, which  was openly supported and equipped by  Rwanda  and Uganda . Finally, shortly after coming to power, the new master of  Kinshasa  turned against his former sponsors, who then invaded the country and occupied it under the cover of local movements, until  2003. Even today, eastern Congo ( Kivu and  Ituri  in particular) is experiencing the aftershocks of these tragic events. Public force: 1885-1960 The first organized troops in the Congo, known as the  Force Publique  (FP), were created in  1885  by  Camille Coquilhat  when King  Leopold II of Belgium  , who had just taken possession of the country as the Congo Free State  (EIC), ordered his Minister of Interior to create a military and police force in this new territory. The Force Publique was supervised by a corps of white officers  , most of them  Belgian , but also European officers ( Swedish ,  Danish ,  Polish  , etc.) in search of easy money, exoticism and adventure. The corps of  non-commissioned officers , exclusively African, was formed by individuals from the most warlike tribes of the  Upper Congo , or the fiercest soldiers of the FP contingent. Finally, the bulk of the troops, wearing blue uniforms and red fezzes, was made up of either slaves bought from Swahili traffickers in exchange for a four-year commitment to the Force Publique, or children kidnapped during raids, or men whose families were taken hostage and released after incorporation. Also, very logically, if the Force Publique very early constituted an armed force feared for its extreme violence (see:  chicotte ), it was quickly confronted with numerous problems of discipline during its history. Thus, on the one hand, mutinies of black soldiers were frequent (see in particular the  Batetela revolt ), on the other hand, the Congolese administration had to deal with certain white officers exceeding their powers (see:  Léon Rom ) and monopolizing for their own profit the territories for which they were responsible 1 . Campaigns against the Arab-Swahilis The first mission of the Force Publique was to ensure control over the territory of the EIC, particularly in the East ( Maniema  and  Kivu ) where the Swahili states were prospering,  led  by wealthy  Bantu traders from  Zanzibar .  Slave traders , ivory traffickers , and  Muslims  (hence the misuse of the term "  Arabs  "), the Swahili merchants were quickly caricatured in the Western press, which allowed Leopold II to sell his personal war to international opinion as an anti-slavery crusade. The conflict soon broke out and the Force Publique undertook a series of military campaigns between May  1892  and January  1894  under the command of  Francis Dhanis . At the height of the engagement, at the end of 1892, around 100,000 Arab-Swahilis divided into several armies were opposed and defeated by 120 Europeans leading 3,500 regular soldiers 2 . Under pressure from international opinion regarding the conditions of the natives in the Congo, Leopold II was forced to transfer   sovereignty over the Congo to the Belgian State in 1908  ; the territory then took the name of  Belgian Congo . Concerning the Force Publique, many efforts were undertaken to remedy the excesses of the time of the Congo Free State, and to make the Force Publique a more classical and more disciplined colonial force. Thus, Belgian officers replaced the foreign officers put in place under the EIC. In order to retain their command, foreign officers requested and obtained Belgian naturalization. This was the case of the Dane Olsen who, from 1914 to 1918, participated in the victorious campaigns of German East Africa and later became governor. The internal organization of the Force Publique was rationalized around the standard unit of the  company , commanded by a captain and comprising 150 native soldiers ( askaris ) for 4 Belgian officers. Enlistment for a period of seven years was based on a system of recruit quotas fixed by district. Most soldiers were armed with a single 11mm Albini rifle and continued to wear the blue uniform and red fez dating from the EIC, replaced between  1915  and  1917  by a khaki uniform. In  1914 , the Force Publique comprised approximately 17,000 men, most of whom served in garrison and essentially played a police role in a given territory. The First and Second World Wars From the beginning of the  First World War , Belgium, despite its neutrality, was invaded by Germany and almost entirely occupied, leaving only a shred of free territory defended by the army for four years. This was very significant for the Belgian Congo. Indeed, the government of Belgium, in exile in  France , no longer able to exercise its sovereignty over the metropolis, charged the Force Publique with supporting the  French and especially British colonial troops  against the German colonial empire . The Force Publique thus distinguished itself with success in  Cameroon  (see:  Kamerun ),  Rwanda ,  Burundi  and  Tanzania  (see:  German East Africa ) during the victorious  campaign in East Africa  which ended with the Belgian victory at  Tabora . Suffering from German bombardments on the towns along  Lake Tanganyika  , particularly the port of Albertville  (now  Kalemie ), the Force Publique, commanded by General Tombeur and Colonels Molitor and Olsen, responded on  18  April  1916  and captured  Kigali  on  6  May  1916. A month later, the town of Usumbura  in Burundi fell to Belgian numerical superiority. On  17 June , the whole of Rwanda and Burundi was occupied. In Tanganyika, the Molitor brigade captured  Mwanza , before marching on  Tabora , which after several days of fierce fighting, finally fell on  19  September  1916 . The Belgian-Congolese and British forces then occupied the whole of German East Africa despite the strong resistance of the German General  Von Lettow-Vorbeck  which lasted until the armistice  of November  1918 . After the  Versailles Conference  of  1919  confirmed the dissolution of the German colonial empire , Belgium obtained  a  mandate  from the  League of Nations  (LN) over  Ruanda-Urundi in 1923. Two years later, these territories were attached to the  Belgian Congo  while being entitled to a Belgian governor distinct from the governor of the Belgian Congo. In  1936 , Belgium opted for a policy of  neutrality , which did not prevent either the invasion by Nazi Germany  on  10  May  1940 , or the capitulation and arrest of King  Leopold III of Belgium  on  28 May . But, refusing the suzerainty of the   Third Reich , the colony spontaneously sided with the  United Kingdom  during the  Second World War , and in  1941 sent  three infantry brigades to fight in  Italian Abyssinia  where they ended their campaign with the victories of  Bortai  and ….. (see:  East African Campaign ), and dispatched an expeditionary force to  Egypt  and the  Middle East . Elements of the  Public Force  on the move during the 1916-1917 campaign in East Africa The period of independence After the war and until  1960 , Belgium completed the transformation of the  Force Publique  into a disciplined and demanding police force, imbued with a culture of  segregation  actively maintained by the Belgian authorities. Indeed, until  September  1959 , less than a year before the independence of the Belgian Congo, indigenous soldiers could not be promoted beyond the rank of  non-commissioned officer . Also, since the Belgian government had not taken measures in time to establish a corps of competent indigenous officers, at independence, no  officer  in the Force Publique, even a junior one, was indigenous, and only 20  African cadets  were receiving officer training. On  5  July  1960 , just days after Belgium granted independence , the  garrisons  of the Force Publique around  Leopoldville  mutinied against their white officers and attacked numerous European targets. The insurrection caused panic among the civilian population of European origin (mainly Belgian), who returned en masse to  Europe , and the new government lost credibility by showing itself incapable of containing the mutineers and preventing the exactions (murders, rapes and pillaging), the premises of the  Congolese crisis  to come. A colonial institution par excellence and hated by the Congolese population, the Force Publique was renamed  the National Army of Congo  (ANC), and its command was Africanized. Congolese National Army: 1960-1971 Over the next five years, the secession of the mining provinces of  Katanga  and  South Kasai , the assassination of independence leader  Patrice Lumumba , and the resulting rebellion (see:  Pierre Mulele ), plunged the country into an   unprecedented crisis . Supported by the  United Nations  in the Katanga crisis (see:  United Nations Operation in the Congo ), and assisted by the  United States  and  Israel  in the reconquest of rebel territory, the troops of  Mobutu , a former  sergeant-major  of the Force Publique who had become for a time chief of staff of the ANC, managed to somewhat pacify the country. Mobutu then established himself as a key figure in the Congo. After having reorganized the military apparatus to his advantage, he took advantage of his position, and with the support of Belgium and the  CIA , he led   a  coup d'état on 24  November  1965  against  Joseph Kasa-Vubu , the first  president of the  newly independent Congo. Champion of the Western bloc against the advance of  communism  in  sub-Saharan Africa , Mobutu and his army benefited from decisive technical support from the American superpower, the former Belgian metropolis and France. Thus, in May  1968 , the Western powers helped to form a   parachute  brigade , composed of two regiments , themselves divided into three  battalions 3 . At the end of October  1971 , Mobutu launched the policy of resorting to authenticity, and the country was renamed the "  Republic of Zaire  ". Consequently, the National Army of the Congo (ANC) took the name of the  Zairian Armed Forces  (FAZ). Zairian Armed Forces: 1971-1997 In July  1975 , according to the IISS  Military Balance, the FAZ consisted of 14 infantry battalions, seven guard battalions, seven paratrooper battalions (inherited from the Paratrooper Brigade formed in  1968 ). There was also an armored car regiment and a 4th mechanized infantry battalion . The Angolan Civil War Supported by the Western camp during the  Cold War , Mobutu committed his troops in  1975  to the civil war in  Angola , in order to support the  National Front for the Liberation of Angola  (FNLA) against the  Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola  (MPLA), of Marxist obedience, supported by the Soviet Union , and in power since  November 11 ,  1975. Threatening to take  Luanda , the capital, the Zairian troops were finally defeated by the  Cuban expeditionary force  that came to the aid of Agostinho Neto .  Following this bitter failure, the policy of interference in Angolan affairs intensified with the support of the Zairian Armed Forces for the  Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda  (FLEC) and later for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola  (UNITA). In response, Angola and Cuban troops based there supported  the  National Front for the Liberation of Congo (FNLC) in 1977  and launched an offensive in March of the same year in the rich mining province of  Katanga , renamed Shaba in  1971 . The First Shaba War The first attack, launched on  March 7  and involving 2,000 men, targeted mining towns near the border, including  Kolwezi . The invasion met with only limited resistance from the Zairian Armed Forces, which were outnumbered, equipped by Western powers and supervised by American, French and Belgian military advisers. Faced with this rout, Mobutu was forced to request assistance from his allies. Belgium, the United States and France  immediately  sent airborne support, Egypt provided  around fifty pilots and technicians, significantly reinforcing the Zairian Air Force, and finally  Morocco  deployed a seasoned contingent of 1,500 men . 5 The parachuting of French troops into Kolwezi on  9 April , and the counter-offensive of Zairian and Moroccan forces on  14 April , began the reconquest of the province, causing 50,000 refugees to flee to Angola. By the end of May, Shaba was under control and Mobutu's regime saved. However, the poor performance of the FAZ, unable to guarantee the country's defense alone, highlighted the chronic weakening of Mobutu's troops 6 , characterized by incompetent and corrupt officers, underpaid soldiers who preferred to desert rather than fight. Mobutu therefore reformed the internal organization of the army and the chain of command. He purged the FAZ of 25% of its personnel, judged disloyal and ineffective, integrated the general staff into his presidential cabinet and combined the functions of chief of staff, minister of defense and supreme commander of the FAZ. Finally, in order to guarantee security in the province of Shaba, he permanently assigned the  Kamanyola (en) 7 division  , an elite troop previously assigned to the defense of  Kinshasa . However, if, at the end of the first Shaba war, Mobutu tried to plug the gaps, nothing fundamentally changed. The logic of the Cold War continued its course and neither  Mobutu nor  Agostinho Neto  decided to stop maintaining the  guerrilla movements  ( FNLA ,  FLEC  and  UNITA  on the one hand and  FNLC  on the other). From then on a second conflict seemed inevitable. The Second Shaba War The leader of the  National Front for the Liberation of Congo  (FNLC),  Nathaniel Mbumba , at the head of his well-equipped, battle-hardened Katangese "  Tigers  " with the support of  Cuban  and  East German officers , launched an offensive on  11  May  1978  on the town of  Kolwezi , taking the 3,000 Europeans residing there hostage. After part of the government troops in Kolwezi rallied, the FAZ were routed and Mobutu was forced once again to seek assistance from his traditional partners, namely the  United States ,  France  and  Belgium . In order to protect its nationals, on  16 May , France put the  2nd REP  (Foreign Parachute Regiment) on alert, which, through a well-conducted surprise attack (Operation Bonite), took complete control of the city in a few days, put the Katangese rebels to flight and evacuated the European hostages. Subsequently, Belgian paratroopers and troops from an African force dominated by Moroccans helped the  Foreign Legion  and the FAZ to secure the region. Finally, the  United States  supervised negotiations between the Angolan and Zairian governments for a peace agreement and an end to support for the respective rebellions in both countries. Zaire temporarily cut off aid to  FLEC ,  FNLA , and  UNITA ,  and Angola withdrew its support for the Shaba separatists . Moba Wars In 1984 and 1985, the FAZ suppressed the insurrection of  the People's Revolution Party  of  Laurent-Désiré Kabila  during the  Moba wars , on the shores of  Lake Tanganyika . The unrest of the early 1990s The cruel lack of discipline within the Congolese forces was evident again in  1990. Indeed, with the disintegration of the  Eastern bloc  and the end of the Cold War, the unconditional support of the West for Mobutu's Zaire ceased. The latter, comforted by the personal relations he maintained with certain Western leaders, continued to believe in his impunity and deliberately allowed the conditions of the military to deteriorate so that his control of power would not be threatened 9 . But, in September  1991 , during the violent  riots in Kinshasa , some garrisons in the capital, unhappy with low wages and the accumulation of pay arrears, ended up taking the side of the rioters. And the unrest was only stopped by the bloody repression of the  Special Presidential Division  (DSP), and by the intervention of French forces ("Operation Baumier") and Belgian forces ("Operation Blue Beam")  10 . In  1994 , on the eve of the  Rwandan genocide and the consequences for the Great Lakes region, the situation of the FAZ was dramatic. Indeed, apart from certain privileged units such as the DSP or the 31st Airborne  Brigade, the majority of the other formations had, for a decade, been poorly trained, poorly equipped, and so poorly paid that they regularly resorted to racketeering the local populations. Similarly, the politicization, as well as the progressive ethnicization of the troops, ended up discrediting in the eyes of the population and international observers an army that was already largely disowned 11 . Finally, of course, the FAZ had not escaped the general deterioration of Zairian infrastructure, victims of Mobutu's clientelist and kleptomaniac regime. The First Congo War Since  1994 , the Kivu province  in the east of the country has seen the arrival of huge flows of refugees, composed of  Tutsis  and Hutus , fleeing the  genocide in Rwanda . Welcomed in humanitarian structures set up not far from the eastern border, the refugee populations quickly included among them a number of  Hutu genocidaires , eager to escape the offensive of the  Rwandan Patriotic Front  ( RPF ). However, protected by the international community, these humanitarian camps quickly became sanctuaries for Hutu extremists in search of revenge. Also,  Paul Kagamé , leader of the  RPF , and new strongman of  Kigali , considering  Rwanda  threatened by a return of genocidal militias, undertook to arm the  Banyamulenge ,  Tutsis  who had emigrated to  Kivu  since the  1930s , and were seen as natural allies of  Rwanda . In mid-October  1996 , humanitarian camps on the outskirts of  Bukavu  were attacked by  Banyamulenge  led by a veteran of  Mulele 's Lumubist rebellion  :  Laurent-Désiré Kabila , who had turned to gold and ivory trading in the  1980s [ref. requested] . Lemera hospital  was attacked  by Banyamulenge and Rwandan soldiers on 6 October 1996. Starting from the eastern border, the rebellion, equipped and supported by Rwanda, Uganda and  Angola ,  dispersed the refugee camps before marching west, taking the cities of  Goma ,  Bukavu  and  Kisangani , the latter  being taken  on  15  March  1997. It advanced south towards the mining regions of  Katanga , whose capital  Lubumbashi  was "liberated"  on  9  April  1997  , and  Kasai . The rebel armies, structured around Laurent-Désiré Kabila and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo  (AFDL), not encountering any real opposition, occupied regions abandoned by the Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ). The latter, with the exception of a few elite units, had not received any pay for months and retreated, surrendered without fighting or even joined the rebel forces. Deprived of the strong regions of  Zaire  and abandoned by his Western protectors, Marshal  Mobutu  was unable to cope with the situation and failed to impose a ceasefire on his adversary. Also, despite the development of a peace plan by the Organization of African Unity  (OAU) based on the cessation of hostilities and the opening of a political dialogue, the fighting continued. On the ground, the AFDL forces continued  their advance towards  Kinshasa . Similarly, despite international pressure, the meeting on 4 May 1997 between  Mobutu  and  Laurent-Désiré Kabila , on board a South African ship, did not come to fruition. The last resistance of elite Mobutu units was broken on  May 12 ,  1997  during the  Battle of Kenge . On May 17, 1997, the "Kadogo" of the AFDL  entered Kinshasa  with the support of the Rwandan army, cheered by a Kinshasa population exasperated by thirty years of  dictatorship  and tired of the Mobutu regime.  Rejecting the symbols of the hated regime, the new power then undertook to erase some of the names born of  Zairianization  : the country thus became the  Democratic Republic of Congo , of which  Kabila  proclaimed himself president, the river was renamed  Congo , the  Congolese franc  replaced the old  Zaire , the same was true for the national anthem, the motto, as well as the armed forces which took the name of Congolese Armed Forces (FAC). The Congolese armed forces are the result of the merger of guerrilla groups  , such as the  Congolese Rally for Democracy  (RCD), which seized power in 1997 from the former national army. Now [When?] it has about fourteen integrated brigades and an unknown number of non-integrated brigades, which are formed exclusively by a single faction, such as the RCD or the  Congolese Liberation Movement . Since its formation, this force has been confronted with multiple conflicts on Congolese territory, including the  Kivu War in 2008  and, between 2012 and the end of 2013, the rebellion of the  March 23 Movement  , which it defeated with the support of the United Nations.