| Description |
xxxviii, 529 pages : maps ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 469-514) and index. |
| Contents |
Rwanda's mixed season of hope (Jul 1994 - Apr 1995) -- From Kibeho to the attack on Zaire (Apr 1995 - Oct 1996) -- The Congo basin, its interlopers, and its onlookers (Zaire, Sudanese & Ugandans, Angolan conflict) -- Winning a virtual war (Sep 1996 - May 1997) -- Losing the real peace (Kabila, Luanda/Brazzaville, the DRC, Kivus, May 1997 - Aug 1998) -- A continental war (Augu 1998 - Aug 1999, Kinshasa, Lusaka) -- Sinking into the quagmire (Aug 1999 - Jan 2001, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, MONUC, Mzee) -- Not with a bang, but with a whimper: the war's confused ending (Jan 2001 - Dec 2002) -- From war to peace: Congolese transition and conflict deconstruction (Jan 2003-Jul 2007) -- Groping for meaning: the "Congolese" conflict and the crisis of contemporary Africa -- Seth Sendashonga's murder. |
| Summary |
From the Publisher: The Rwandan genocide sparked a horrific bloodbath that swept across sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately leading to the deaths of some four million people. In this extraordinary history of the recent wars in Central Africa, Gerard Prunier offers a gripping account of how one grisly episode laid the groundwork for a sweeping and disastrous upheaval. Prunier vividly describes the grisly aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when some two million refugees-a third of Rwanda's population-fled to exile in Zaire in 1996. The new Rwandan regime then crossed into Zaire and attacked the refugees, slaughtering upwards of 400,000 people. The Rwandan forces then turned on Zaire's despotic President Mobutu and, with the help of a number of allied African countries, overthrew him. But as Prunier shows, the collapse of the Mobutu regime and the ascension of the corrupt and erratic Laurent-Desire Kabila created a power vacuum that drew Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and other African nations into an extended and chaotic war. The heart of the book documents how the whole core of the African continent became engulfed in an intractable and bloody conflict after 1998, a devastating war that only wound down following the assassination of Kabila in 2001. Prunier not only captures all this in his riveting narrative, but he also indicts the international community for its utter lack of interest in what was then the largest conflict in the world. Here then is a gripping eyewitness account of the bloodiest upheaval of recent times, a book of passionate and unblinking intensity that is our best record to date of one of the great tragedies of the post-Cold War era. |
| Subject |
Congo (Democratic Republic) -- History -- 1997-
|
|
Congo (Democratic Republic) |
|
History. |
| Chronological Term |
1997- |
| Subject |
Rwanda -- History -- Civil War, 1994 -- Refugees.
|
|
Genocide -- Rwanda.
|
|
Genocide. |
|
Rwanda. |
|
Political violence -- Great Lakes Region (Africa)
|
|
Political violence. |
|
Africa, Central -- Ethnic relations -- Political aspects -- 20th century.
|
|
Central Africa. |
|
Ethnic relations. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
| Subject |
Geopolitics -- Africa, Central.
|
|
Geopolitics. |
| ISBN |
9780195374209 hardback alkaline paper |
|
0195374207 hardback alkaline paper |
|
