Historical Dictionary of Civil Wars in Africa (Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest)

527 Pages·2007·1.9 MB·English

by  Guy Arnold

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AFRICA (cid:129) HISTORY N HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF
Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest, No. 34
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Since the end of World War II, and especially after 1960 when seventeen African
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colonies became independent of colonial rule, the African continent has been rav-
aged by a series of wars. They have ranged from liberation struggles against former
colonial powers to power struggles between different factions in the aftermath of in-
dependence to border wars between newly independent states to civil wars between
different ethnic groups. As with many confl icts, outside forces were drawn into
SECOND EDITION
many of these wars, intervening on one side or the other for a variety of reasons,
including political ideology, Cold War considerations, and ethnic alignments.
This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Civil Wars in Africa reviews the H
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wars that have occurred in Africa in the past half century: Algeria’s struggle for T
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independence from French colonial rule, Nigeria’s fi ght to achieve a balanced state R
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after the British departure, the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and the current ethnic A
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cleansing in Darfur, to name only a few. It contains a chronology, a list of acronyms D
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and abbreviations, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and cross-referenced dic-
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tionary entries on wars, confl icts, major political and military fi gures, and topics EC O
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such as child soldiers, mercenaries, and blood diamonds. D A
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IT Y
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GUY ARNOLD is the author of more than 40 books, including the Historical N F
Dictionary of Aid and Development Organizations (1996), Historical Dictionary of Civil
Wars in Africa: First Edition (1999), Historical Dictionary of the Crimean War (2002),
and Historical Dictionary of the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World (2006), all
published by Scarecrow Press.
For orders and information please contact the publisher
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc. Cover design by Neil D. Cotterill
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200
Lanham, Maryland 20706 ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-5766-7 GUY ARNOLD
ISBN-10: 0-8108-5766-9
1-800-462-6420 • fax [phone]
90000
www.scarecrowpress.com
Cover photo: young Liberian soldiers in Monrovia,
9 780810 857667
2003, courtesy Reuters/Corbis
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HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES
OF WAR, REVOLUTION, AND CIVIL UNREST
Jon Woronoff, Series Editor
1. Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies, by Ludwig W.
Adamec. 1996. Out of print. See No. 30.
2. The United States–Mexican War, by Edward H. Moseley and
Paul C. Clark Jr. 1997.
3. World War I, by Ian V. Hogg. 1998.
4. The United States Navy, by James M. Morris and Patricia M.
Kearns. 1998.
5. The United States Marine Corps, by Harry A. Gailey. 1998.
6. The Wars of the French Revolution, by Steven T. Ross. 1998.
7. The American Revolution, by Terry M. Mays. 1999.
8. The Spanish–American War, by Brad K. Berner. 1998.
9. The Persian Gulf War, by Clayton R. Newell. 1998.
10. The Holocaust, by Jack R. Fischel. 1999.
11. The United States Air Force and Its Antecedents, by Michael
Robert Terry. 1999.
12. Civil Wars in Africa, by Guy Arnold. 1999. Out of Print. See
No. 34.
13. World War II: The War Against Japan, by Anne Sharp Wells.
1999.
14. British and Irish Civil Wars, by Martyn Bennett. 2000.
15. The Cold War, by Joseph Smith and Simon Davis. 2000.
16. Ancient Greek Warfare, by Iain Spence. 2002.
17. The Vietnam War, by Edwin E. Moïse. 2001.
18. The Civil War, by Terry L. Jones. 2002.
19. The Crimean War, by Guy Arnold. 2002.
20. The United States Army, a Historical Dictionary, by Clayton R.
Newell. 2002.
21. Terrorism, Second Edition, by Sean K. Anderson and Stephen
Sloan. 2002.
22. Chinese Civil War, by Edwin Pak-wah Leung. 2002.
23. The Korean War: A Historical Dictionary, by Paul M. Edwards.
2002.
24. The “Dirty Wars,” by David Kohut, Olga Vilella, and Beatrice
Julian. 2003.
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25. The Crusades, by Corliss K. Slack. 2003.
26. Ancient Egyptian Warfare, by Robert G. Morkot. 2003.
27. The French Revolution, by Paul R. Hanson. 2004.
28. Arms Control and Disarmament, by Jeffrey A. Larsen and
James M. Smith. 2005.
29. The Russo–Japanese War, by Rotem Kowner. 2005.
30. Afghan Wars, Revolutions, and Insurgencies, Second Edition, by
Ludwig W. Adamec. 2005.
31. War of 1812, by Robert Malcomson. 2006.
32. Arab–Israeli Confl ict, by P. R. Kumaraswamy. 2006.
33. Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare, by Benjamin C.
Garrett and John Hart. 2007.
34. Civil Wars in Africa, Second Edition, by Guy Arnold. 2008.
35. Northern Ireland Confl ict, by Gordon Gillespie. 2008.
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Historical Dictionary of
Civil Wars in Africa
Second Edition
Guy Arnold
Historical Dictionaries of War,
Revolution, and Civil Unrest, No. 34
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2008
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SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.scarecrowpress.com
Estover Road
Plymouth PL6 7PY
United Kingdom
Copyright © 2008 by Guy Arnold
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arnold, Guy.
Historical dictionary of civil wars in Africa / Guy Arnold. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Historical dictionaries of war, revolution, and civil unrest ; 34)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-5766-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8108-5766-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Revolutions—Africa—Encyclopedias. 2. Civil war—Encyclopedias.
3. Africa—History, Military—Encyclopedias. I. Title.
DT21.5.A76 2007
960—dc22 2007024894
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
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Contents
Editor’s Foreword (Jon Woronoff ) vii
Preface ix
Acronyms and Abbreviations xi
Map xxi
Chronology xxiii
Introduction xxix
THE DICTIONARY 1
Bibliography 433
About the Author 491
v
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Editor’s Foreword
For over a century, Africa has experienced a violent cycle of warfare.
First came the wars of colonial conquest, then the armed struggles for
independence, and fi nally a series of civil wars. These civil wars have
many causes, including the struggle over artifi cial frontiers inherited
from colonialism, friction and rivalry among different ethnic and reli-
gious groups, and the crude desire for power of some African leaders.
During the Cold War, the situation was further exacerbated by interven-
tion or “aid” from the former colonial powers and new superpowers.
Although it has not been easy to prevent or contain these wars, increas-
ingly efforts are being made by the United Nations, other international
organizations, and African organizations such as the African Union to
provide peacekeeping and provide care for refugees.
For a continent that is poorly known and badly misunderstood to
begin with, it is often hard to fi nd useful information about under-
lying situations, groups and people involved, and even the course of
wars—which is why this Historical Dictionary of Civil Wars in Africa
is such an important book. The chronology tracks when civil wars
erupted or were resolved, and which ones still continue; the introduc-
tion puts the warfare into historical, political, and geographical context;
the dictionary provides a wealth of information on each of the wars, the
more prominent leaders involved (both those who make war and those
who try to bring peace), liberation movements, and political parties and
organizations; and the substantial bibliography presents indispensable
information for those who want to know more.
Guy Arnold, who wrote the fi rst and now the second edition of this
volume, is a freelance writer and has become an acknowledged author-
ity on Africa and the third world. He has been writing about Africa
for four decades and his books have covered events in many African
countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. He has also
vii
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viii • EDITOR’S FOREWORD
written Wars in the Third World since 1945, Historical Dictionary of
Aid and Development Organizations, and Historical Dictionary of the
Non-Aligned Movement and the Third World. The second edition of
this Historical Dictionary of Civil Wars in Africa is not only updated,
but it is also considerably expanded, since there are sadly now 30 civil
wars instead of the 20 in the fi rst edition. It is an important resource for
anyone concerned with current events in Africa.
Jon Woronoff
Series Editor
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Preface
In the eight years since the fi rst edition of the Historical Dictionary
of Civil Wars in Africa appeared, much has changed, yet the level of
violence on the continent remains high. Thirty civil wars are now re-
corded as opposed to 20 in the fi rst edition. In Sudan, the 20-year-old
war between north and south has fi nally come to an end, but another
civil war has replaced it in the huge Darfur province. In the Congo (for-
mer Zaire), following the civil war that ended Mobutu’s long tyranny,
another war followed. This was known as Africa’s Great War and in-
volved a number of Congo’s neighbors. In West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire,
long seen as one of the region’s most stable countries, descended into a
civil war that split the country between north and south.
Dictionary entries cover a number of categories: civil wars, of which
there are now 30; liberation or other movements, such as the African
National Congress (ANC) or Popular Movement for the Liberation of
Angola (MPLA), which are involved in such wars; leading political or
military fi gures, such as Idi Amin of Uganda or Laurent Kabila of the
Democratic Republic of Congo; external countries or organizations that
have attempted peacekeeping or mediation roles—the Commonwealth,
France, the United Nations, the United States—or have intervened in
other ways; and specifi c events connected with the wars, such as the
Setif uprising of 1945 in Algeria (which was a defi ning moment in the
deteriorating relationship between France and its north African colony)
or the Nkomati Accord of 1984 between Mozambique and South Africa.
In addition, there are a number of entries covering topics such as aid,
the churches, or mercenaries that have obvious relevance. The principal
entries cover the civil wars, which are Algeria (2), Angola, Burundi,
Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Africa’s Great War),
Congo (Zaire) (2), Congo (Brazzaville), Côte d’Ivoire, Darfur, Eritrea/
Ethiopia, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria (2), Ogaden War,
ix
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