The Congo-Zaire Experience, 1960-98

This is the exciting saga of the second largest country in Africa, one which has had a full experience of civil wars, tribal uprisings, revolts, plots against Presidents, and separatist invasions since being suddenly plunged into independence in 1960. The book examines how a UN force stepped in to prevent the mineral-rich province of Katanga from breaking away, staying for nearly four years, after which quarrelling war lords fought for central power. In 1965 Mobutu came to power ruling as a dictator of his Single Party State, until he was finally toppled in 1997 by a Tutsi-back invasion force led by Kabila.