Katanga: Fighting for DR Congo's cash cow to secede

By Maud Jullien, BBC

After a well-known warlord escaped from prison in Katanga, the Democratic Republic of Congo's most stable province has been terrorised for the last year by a group demanding independence for the mineral-rich region.

In Katanga, it is common to hear people complain that they are not benefiting from their region's immense copper and cobalt resources, so it was no surprise that many young people initially responded to the separatists' call.

It is also an issue on which the southern province has infamous form.

Less than a week after Congo's independence in June 1960, it announced it was seceding, sparking a conflict fuelled by Cold War rivalries.

Secessionist leader and businessman Moise Tshombe was backed by Belgium, the ex-colonial power, and the UK and US, which all had mining interests in Katanga and baulked at the idea of a Congo led by a government allied to the Soviet Union.

Within four months Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba had been overthrown. He was later assassinated, while Mr Tshombe eventually bowed to UN pressure and superior firepower. Katanga was reintegrated in 1963.

Cold War politics may no longer be an issue for the Swahili-speaking province almost the size of France, but the alienation from the rest of DR Congo its many residents feel still is.

Democratic Republic of Congo's key armed groups

Global Post 

While the M23 rebellion has monopolised the headlines on eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for over a year, a myriad of other armed groups also operate in the region.

They fight against the government or against other armed groups, in a series of often shifting alliances, and prey on the civilian population.

Here is a selection of some key forces:

M23: Army mutineers, for the most part Congolese Tutsi who speak the Rwandan language Kinyarwanda. Former rebels, they were integrated into the DRC army in 2009 but mutinied in April 2012, complaining that the peace deal had not been fully implemented. Kinshasa and the UN accuse the group of being backed by Rwanda and to a lesser extent by Uganda -- a charge denied by both Kigali and Kampala. M23 briefly seized and occupied Goma in November 2012 and recently resumed fighting against the Congolese army. The group's members have been fighting in the ranks of one force or another since the early 1990s. Estimating their number is difficult since an internal split resulted in many deaths and a wave of defections.

ALLIED DEMOCRATIC FORCES (ADF): Beginning as a group of Ugandan rebels opposed to the regime of President Yoweri Museveni, it has since also developed an Islamist agenda. Based in the Rwenzori mountains that straddle the Uganda/DR Congo border. Estimates as to their number vary from "several hundred to 1,300."

DEMOCRATIC FORCES FOR THE LIBERATION OF RWANDA (FDLR): Rwandan Hutu rebels