After more than thirty years of brutal conflict, whispers of a potential resolution are beginning to surface in the Great Lakes region of Africa—a region ravaged by what has often been dubbed the continent’s “First World War.”
For many, it’s a glimmer of hope in a war that has taken millions of lives and yet remained largely ignored on the global stage.
Author Noël Ndanyuzwe, in his 2014 book La guerre mondiale africaine, reminds readers that as early as 2011, former U.S. ambassador Susan Rice called the ongoing violence “Africa’s first world war,” noting, “When you count the number of countries involved, it’s hard to say otherwise.”
He highlights the indirect involvement of Western powers, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, in backing regional leaders such as Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame—figures seen by critics as central to the war’s longevity.
As far back as April 2000, Le Monde described the Democratic Republic of Congo and its nine neighbouring countries as “possibly the richest territory on Earth,” home to vast deposits of diamonds, oil, uranium, gold, fertile lands, and untapped water resources.
Yet it also called it “the largest battlefield in African history.”
The scale of this devastation is staggering. Between 1998 and 2003 alone, eight nations—Zimbabwe, the DRC, Angola, Namibia, Chad, Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi—clashed violently, with the conflict rooted in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the struggle to control mineral wealth in the Kivu region.
Estimates suggest that between 15 to 20 million people may have died as a result of the war, both directly and indirectly.
The haunting silence surrounding this death toll, often underreported or deliberately obscured, speaks volumes.
But change may be on the horizon. In eastern DRC, military activity is waning as diplomatic negotiations begin to take hold.
The United States has shown renewed interest in restoring peace, while the European Union and United Nations align themselves with this growing momentum.
International sanctions—though still largely symbolic—are beginning to target the architects of war.
Global media and public opinion are gradually lifting the veil on this long-buried conflict, exposing the hidden motives of those who profited from chaos.
Across Congo, Africa, and the world, voices are growing louder, demanding an end to a war that for decades has claimed unarmed civilians, violated women, displaced millions, and robbed children of their futures.
