Kabila’s Pre-Emptive Strike

The final three weeks before the outbreak of the Great African War between comrades are detailed in this chapter. Its examines “Plan A,” a conspiracy involving the RPF, its Ugandan allies and a motley crew of disillusioned Congolese politicians. This coalition of the willing would in August 1998 be recycled into the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) rebellion but was originally meant to dislodge Kabila directly from the presidential palace. However, the de facto coup plot never materialized as the paranoid Congolese president believed the warnings his closest associates were issuing; his expulsion order on July 28 would inevitably trigger war but saved him from a likely death in a sudden strike. While Kabila may have been physically surrounded by his comrades-turned-enemies, his position as head of state enabled him to publicly demand the foreign forces to leave, thus forestalling a coup—if at the cost of triggering Africa's worst war.