Kabila, Laurent-Désiré
Kabila, Laurent-Désiré
(lôräN`-dāzērā` käbē`lä), 1939–2001, Congolese political and rebel leader. He studied at universities in France and Tanzania. returning home in 1960. He supported Patrice LumumbaLumumba, Patrice Emergy, 1925–61, prime minister (1960) of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). A member of the Batatele tribe, he was educated in mission schools and later worked as a postal clerk.
..... Click the link for more information. , established (1967) a Marxist party, and led a group of rebels that opposed Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese SekoMobutu Sese Seko
, 1930–97, president of Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Born Joseph Désiré Mobutu, he returned from study in Brussels to the then Belgian Congo, joining the nationalist movement in 1956.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Spending most of the 1980s in Tanzania, Kabila resurfaced in Zaïre in the 1990s, again becoming the leader of a rebel army. In 1997, while Mobutu was in Europe, Kabila led his forces (which were supported by Uganda and Rwanda) into Kinshasa and 12 days later was sworn in as president; he soon changed the country's name back to Congo. In 1998 he established two national assemblies, but any movement toward democracy soon ended when he banned all political opposition and proceeded to establish a repressive regime. In mid-1998 a rebellion broke out among Tutsis in E Congo, supported by Kabila's former allies Uganda and Rwanda. A ceasefire was reached in 1999, but the rebellion grew and sporadic fighting continued. In 2001 Kabila was assassinated, apparently by one of his bodyguards, and his son, Joseph KabilaKabila, Joseph
, 1971–, Congolese political leader, eldest son of Laurent Kabila. He was educated in Tanzania while his father was in exile there, and after his father became president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he received military training in Rwanda and
..... Click the link for more information. , succeeded him as president.