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Interahamwe, translated from Kinyarwanda to English as “those who work/ fight together,” is an African paramilitary and terrorist group currently based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Composed mainly of young Hutu men, Interahamwe was one of the major belligerents against the Tutsi in Rwanda, leading the mass genocide of Tutsi civilians and Hutu political enemies during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Since fleeing Rwanda after the end of the genocide, most western and African nations have classified the group as a radical terrorist organization.

Interahamwe officially began as the small youth wing of the larger Hutu ruling party of Rwanda, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), led by the then president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana. Very few of these original members had any paramilitary training.

Since its start as the MRND youth section, what many define as the “Interahamwe” has changed dramatically. As violence in the country escalated during the civil war, the definition of “Interahamwe” slowly turned from an innocuous youth group into a broad grouping of almost anyone who was engaged in the active killing of Rwandan Tutsis, regardless of their membership with the MRND. Still, the MRND backed, and actively encouraged, the slaughter of Tutsi civilians by the hands of the Interahamwe and a similar, albeit much smaller group, the Impuzamugambi.

On October 1, 1990, the Tutsi-backed Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda with the goal of taking back the land that was taken from them after an anti-Tutsi coup d’état drove them out of the country in 1959. This invasion started the Rwandan Civil War, which lasted until August of 1992, when president Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords, bringing a cease-fire to the country as well as an agreement to give the Tutsi rebels some government power.

Many of the Hutu extremists of the country were adamantly opposed to this policy, and when, on April 6th, 1994, an unknown assailant shot down president Habyarimana’s private jet, violence began. Fueled by anti-Tutsi rhetoric broadcast by government radio and the fear of a Tutsi uprising, the Interahamwe began slaughtering their Tutsi and moderate Hutu neighbors, killing between 500,000 to 1,000,000 political enemies and Tutsi civilians during a span of 100 days, creating one of the worst mass killings of the 20th century.

The genocide ended on July 15th, 1994, when the RPF took control of most of Rwanda, preventing any further killings by the Interahamwe. The RPF drove the Interahamwe—as well as many other Hutu and Tutsi enemies—out of Rwanda after their securing of the country, generating up to 2,000,000 refugees. Many of these refugees, along with a majority of the remnants of the Interahamwe, fled to eastern Zaire (modern Democratic Republic of the Congo), where they still operate to this day, albeit with significantly fewer numbers and much less power.

Few members of the Interahamwe faced prosecution for their involvement in the genocide. Only 41 people were convicted through the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) although most were leaders who often faced life sentences in prison. Almost everyone else who participated in the slaughtering of Tutsis faced no consequences.

The Third Congo Civil War—also known as Africa’s World War—was a five-year conflict that occurred primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Nine African countries eventually became involved in the war other than the DRC: Angola, Chad, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Third Congo Civil War became the deadliest conflict since World War II.  An estimated 5.4 million war-related deaths occurred and more than twice that number were displaced from their homes and sought asylum in neighborhood countries.

The Third Congo Civil War evolved out of Laurent-Desire Kabila’s victory over Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Once Kabila became president of the DRC, his relations with previous allies like Rwanda and Uganda quickly deteriorated. In July 1998, Kabila ordered all officials and troops from Rwanda and Uganda to leave the country.  Instead on August 2, 1998, those troops began supporting rebels who were intent on overthrowing Kabila. Two days later, Rwandan troops flew directly from their nation to the DRC province of Bas-Congo (now Kongo Central) which the intention of joining other Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers and March on the capital of Kinshasa.  Their goal was to drive Kabila from power and replace him with leaders from the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RDC).

The Rwandan attempt to overthrow Kabila was prevented by the intervention of Angolan, Zimbabwean, and Namibian troops. The leaders of these nations, while not strong supporters of Kabila, nonetheless feared a precedent when foreign troops invaded another nation to overthrow its government.

Rwandan soldiers and the RCD withdrew to the eastern DRC and began a long campaign against the DRC Army and its new foreign allies.  In February 1999, a new rebel group called Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) backed by Uganda formed in that nation.  They allied with the RDC and the Rwandan troops and invaded the eastern Congo in August 1999. At this point two rebel groups challenged the Kabila-led Congo government and five African nations had troops fighting in the county.  Three nations—Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia—supported the Congo government while Rwanda and Uganda opposed that government.

By the end of the summer of 1999, two rebel factions backed by the Rwandan and Ugandan Armies and their Hutu militias, controlled much of the eastern Congo. While the fighting was going on, cease-fire talks began in July 1999 in Lusaka, Zambia.  A cease-fire agreement was signed among the warring factions in August 1999 called the Lusaka Accord. None of the factions, however, keep their promises made at Lusaka and the fighting continued.

On January 16, 2001, DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard Rashidi Muzele in Kinshasa. Kabila’s son Joseph Kabila succeeded him as president of the DRC and began new negotiations with the warring factions to end the fighting. On April 2, 2003, the Pretoria Accord was finally ratified in Sun City, South Africa.  Within months Rwandan, Angolan, Namibian, Ugandan and Zimbabwean troops withdrew from the Congo.  Two months later on July 18, 2003 the war was over.

Gabon is a former French colony in Central Africa bordered by Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to the north, Congo Brazzaville to east and south and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is a country of just over two million people and although it is a nominally rich country due to its oil, the majority of its people are not beneficiaries.

The country used to be part of what was known as the French Equatorial Africa Federation. It was established in 1910 and comprised the following territories: Ubangi-Shari (now majorly known as the Central Africa Republic); French Gabon; French Congo (now split between Congo Brazzaville and the Central African Republic) and the territory that is now called Chad.

The Pygmy people are thought to be the autochthonous people of this region that includes modern Gabon. The Pygmy people are a constellation of different ethnicities in Central Africa whose way of life was negatively impacted by the coming of the Europeans and continues to be so even after colonization.

For instance, from 1910 to 1940, the lands of the Aka, a Pygmy people, were presided over by the French Equatorial Africa, which forced tribes within the vicinity into rubber manufacturing. Their habitats in the forests enabled them to revolutionize their hunting techniques such as using nets as opposed to spears and encouraging more women to become hunters as well.

There are concerns, however, that traditional knowledge and many Aka rituals are slowly disappearing because of the drastic change of lifestyle and reduction of game in the forest due to modernization.

It was in the 15th century that the first Europeans, the Portuguese, arrived in this area of the Atlantic Ocean’s coast. They went inland into Central Africa, making encampments around the Komo River in modern-day Libreville, Gabon’s capital city. They called the estuary of the Komo, a gabão, Portuguese for “cloak”.

Gabão was corrupted by later arriving Europeans, giving us the modern iteration of the name: Gabon.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has alerted West African nations to watch out for potential cases of Ebola. The alert was issued to six nations in the region after Ebola cases were recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.

Guinea officially declared an outbreak last Sunday after confirming at least seven cases of the disease and three deaths, according to the country’s National Security and Health Agency (ANSS). This was after locals attended the burial of a nurse and started reporting Ebola-like symptoms.

Meanwhile, DRC on January 7 declared the emergence of Ebola after a new case of Ebola was detected in Butembo, a city in North Kivu Province, where a previous outbreak was declared over in June 2020.

“We have already alerted the six countries around, including of course Sierra Leone and Liberia, and they are moving very fast to prepare and be ready and to look for any potential infection,” the WHO’s Margaret Harris told a Geneva briefing, according to Africanews. Guinea’s neighbors include Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The WHO has pledged to procure Ebola vaccines to support Guinea which has helped to control the recent outbreak in DRC, according to CNN. The network also reports that WHO teams are already in Guinea to ensure prevention in health facilities, key locations and communities.

According to WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the current outbreak started in a border area of Guinea and that officials are working with health authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to increase surveillance in border areas.

“It’s a huge concern to see the resurgence of Ebola in Guinea, a country which has already suffered so much from the disease. However, banking on the expertise and experience built during the previous outbreak, health teams in Guinea are on the move to quickly trace the path of the virus and curb further infections,” said Dr. Moeti said in a statement.  “WHO is supporting the authorities to set up testing, contact-tracing and treatment structures and to bring the overall response to full speed.”

The statement also noted that WHO was reaching out to Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and other countries at risk in the sub-region. More than 28,000 people were infected with Ebola in West Africa between 2014 to 2016, resulting in the death of 11,000 of them.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission, according to the World Health Organization. It was first discovered in 1976 in South Sudan and DRC. The largest outbreak of the disease was recorded in West Africa between 2014–2016.

The incubation period of the disease is two to 21 days. Symptoms of the disease include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.