2 years, 2 months ago
Who are the Interahamwe and why is the Congo army afraid of them?
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M$1 Answer
The Interhamwe is a Hutu paramilitary group that was intimately involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that left between between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people dead. Members of the Tutsi tribal group were largely targeted by the Interhamwe.
At the conclusion of the Rwandan genocide, many Hutus, Interhamwe among them, fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
The Congo has good reason to fear the Interhamwe. In 1996, the Interhamwe joined with the Zairian armed forces to massacre Tutsis within Zaire. In 1997, an internationally-backed, Tutsi-led coalition under the command of led by Laurent-Desire Kabila ousted Zairian president Mobutu - and that was when Zaire's name was changed to The Democratic Republic of Congo.
Although Mobutu is gone, the conflict remains largely unresolved. The possibility that the Interhamwe could incite further tribal violence is an ever present threat in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Incidentally, the founder of the Interhamwe, the group that slaughtered so many Tutsis, Robert Kajuga, was himself a Tutsi.
Image: Skulls of people massacred in the Rwandan genocide
At the conclusion of the Rwandan genocide, many Hutus, Interhamwe among them, fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
The Congo has good reason to fear the Interhamwe. In 1996, the Interhamwe joined with the Zairian armed forces to massacre Tutsis within Zaire. In 1997, an internationally-backed, Tutsi-led coalition under the command of led by Laurent-Desire Kabila ousted Zairian president Mobutu - and that was when Zaire's name was changed to The Democratic Republic of Congo.
Although Mobutu is gone, the conflict remains largely unresolved. The possibility that the Interhamwe could incite further tribal violence is an ever present threat in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Incidentally, the founder of the Interhamwe, the group that slaughtered so many Tutsis, Robert Kajuga, was himself a Tutsi.
Image: Skulls of people massacred in the Rwandan genocide
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M$
It sounds like the Hutu's are the villains oppressing the Tutsi. Who is in the wrong, in your opinion?
With regards to the genocide, a large number of Hutus were most definitely wrong, but if you look at the conflict from a historical sense, Tutsis have done their fair share of nasty stuff too - just not on the same scale.