Among the insurgents was Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who would overthrow long-time dictator Mobutu 30 years later.

Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 by one of his bodyguards, and was succeeded by his son Joseph.

He partly succeeded in February 2001 when a further peace deal was brokered between Kabila, Rwanda and Uganda leading to the apparent withdrawal of foreign troops.

A new election was held on 29 October 2006, which Kabila won with 70 % of the vote.

On 6 December 2006 the Transitional Government came to an end as Joseph Kabila was sworn in as President.

On December 2011, Joseph Kabila was re-elected for a second term as president.

On 20 December, Kabila was sworn in for a second term, promising to invest in infrastructure and public services.

The latter was intended to be fairly short-lived, but Mobutu's power plays dragged it in length, to ultimately 1997, when the forces-led by Laurent Kabila eventually toppled the regime, after a 9-month-long successful military campaign.

As stated above, the government of former president Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila in May 1997, with the support of Rwanda and Uganda.

Kabila was assassinated on 16 January 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila was named head of state ten days later.

Kabila referred to it as " the first giant step forward " in what was referred to as an " all new era ".

Laurent-Désiré Kabila ( November 27, 1939 – January 18, 2001 ) was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from May 17, 1997, when he overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko, until his assassination by one of his bodyguards on January 18, 2001.

When the Congo gained independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960 and the Congo Crisis began, Kabila was a " deputy commander " in the Jeunesses Balubakat, the youth wing of the Patrice Lumumba-aligned General Association of the Baluba People of Katanga ( Balubakat ), actively fighting the secessionist forces of Moise Tshombe.

Within months, Lumumba was overthrown by Joseph Mobutu, and in 1962, Kabila was appointed to the provincial assembly for North Katanga and was chief of cabinet for Minister of Information Ferdinand Tumba.

In Guevara's opinion, Kabila ( then 26 ) was " not the man of the hour " he had alluded to, being too distracted.

This, in Guevara's opinion, was the reason that Kabila would show up days late at times to provide supplies, aid, or backup to Guevara's men.

In Guevara's view, of all of the people he met during his campaign in Congo, Kabila was the only man who had " genuine qualities of a mass leader " but castigated him for a lack of " revolutionary seriousness "

Laurent Kabila was assassinated in the DRC ( Congo ) in 2001, and was succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila.

Joseph Kabila Kabange ( known commonly as Joseph Kabila, born June 4, 1971 ) is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001.

Joseph Kabila Kabange was born on June 4, 1971 at Hewabora, a small village in the Fizi territory of the South Kivu province, in eastern Congo.

Joseph Kabila rose to the Presidency on 26 January 2001 after the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, becoming the world's first head of government born in the 1970s.

Kabila and his spouse have a daughter, born in 2001, named Sifa after Kabila's mother.

Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi ( born 15 January 1933 ) is a high official in the current government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was led first by Laurent-Désiré Kabila and now by his son, Joseph Kabila.

Eric Lenge ( born 1971-) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo led a failed coup during June 2004 against the Government of Joseph Kabila.

However, the DRC being a member of the SADC ( Southern Africa Development Community ) organisation, President Laurent Kabila called this regional organisation to the rescue.

Kabila, an ethnic Luba from Katanga province who would eventually overthrow Mobutu, had been fighting the government since its inception.

# Northern Katanga, where Mai-Mai created by Laurent Kabila slipped out of the control of Kinshasa.

Towards the end of the 90s, Laurent Kabila created and appointed a Transitional Parliament, with a seat in the buildings of the former Katanga Parliament, in the southern town of Lubumbashi, in a move to unite the country, and to legitimate his regime.

* northern Katanga, where Mai-Mai created by Laurent Kabila slipped out of the control of Kinshasa.

Rwandan troops remain in the Congo, backing rebels that aim to overthrow Laurent Kabila ’ s son, Joseph Kabila, who is now the President of the Congo.

In late 1997, he and Andrew Mwenda ( now managing director and also Editor-in-Chief of The Independent news magazine ), then a reporter with The Monitor, were arrested and charged " publication of false news " following a story in which the paper quoted reports in The Indian Ocean newsletter, that Uganda had become compensated with gold by the Kinshasa government of Laurent Kabila, for its support in, along with Rwanda, helping oust the regime of long-term Zaire ( now the Democratic Republic Congo ) dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

In 1965, Kabila set up a cross-border rebel operation from Kigoma, Tanzania, across Lake Tanganyika.

Zimbabwe and Namibia joined Angola in its military intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Angolan troops remain in support of the Joseph Kabila government.

Kabila named himself president, consolidated power around himself and the AFDL, and reverted the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The younger Kabila continued with his father's Transitional Parliament, but overhauled his entire cabinet, replacing it with a group of technocrats, with the stated aim of putting the country back on the track of development, and coming to a decisive end of the Second Congo War.

* 2001 – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( b. 1939 )

Laurent Kabila, the new-President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sent hundreds of troops into Brazzaville to fight on Lissouba's behalf.

In 1998, Rwanda, along with Uganda, invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo to back Congolese rebels trying to overthrow then-President Laurent Kabila.

* January 16 – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( b. 1939 )

** Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( d. 2001 )

** Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the midst of this conflict, Kabila, whose primary intent had been to depose Mobutu, moved his forces to Kinshasa, and in 1997, the same year Mobutu Sese Seko died of prostate cancer, Kabila captured Kinshasa and then became president of Zaire, which he then renamed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 1996, Uganda was a key supporter of the overthrow of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko in the First Congo War in favor of rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

Namibia also intervened in the Second Congo War, sending troops in support of the Democratic Republic of Congo's president Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

Mobutu was overthrown in the First Congo War by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who was supported by the governments of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.