Five million people have died in the DRC since the late 1990's. Most of the conflict took place in rural, mountainous areas in eastern DRC. Since the country is so rich in resources, it has become a battle ground for surrounding countries like Angola, Namibia, Uganda and Rwanda.
Following the Rwandan civil war in 1992, many Rwandan Hutu rebels went to the DRC. They left out of fear that they were going to be killed out of revenge by their enemies, the Rwandan Tutsis. The Tutsis were motivated to kill the Hutu rebels as the Hutu rebels had previously attacked them. The war is very complicated as there are many smaller rebels groups and they sometimes change sides, which shows the blurred lines of where the true conflict lies. Conflict in the DRC escalated after the WW2 as the United States no longer had an interest in the region. Rwanda invaded the DRC in order to kill remaining Hutu rebels. The map to the left shows the most violent hotspots in recent years in the eastern DRC border with Rwanda and Burundi.
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