This day 14 years ago was the last day of existence for the country of Zaire. The old dictator Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, who was dying of prostate cancer, fled into exile as the rebel troops led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila closed in on Kinshasa, thus ending the First Congo War. The following day, Kabila declared himself president and changed the name of the country from Zaire to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mobutu had been appointed chief of staff of the Congolese Army when the country gained independence in 1960. Three months later he seized power in a coup, and five years later he seized power again in another coup. In 1971 he renamed the country the Republic of Zaire and ordered Africans to drop their European names in favour of African ones and abandon European clothing. The following year he renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (“The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake.”)
Because of Mobutu’s fiscal incompetence and corruption, the country fell into sharp economic decline and it remains today the poorest country in the world. After the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the Hutu perpetrators of the genocide escaped into Zaire. Rwanda was antagonised and threatened by the support Mobutu gave to the genocidaires, so the Rwandan Army joined forces with the Ugandan Army and Kabila’s rebel forces in overthrowing Mobutu.