The same brutality and violence that had enabled his accession to power four years ago in 1997 marked the end of Laurent Kabila as strongman and ruler of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are conflicting reports whether his assassin, a bodyguard, operated on his own or as part of an attempted army coup; other reports insist the assassination was the result of the ethnic tensions that have for long defined Congo’s history. Among Congo’s major ethnic groups are the Luba, Mongo, Kongo, Lunda and Kasai. There are besides certain Sudanese groups in the north (the Azande, Mangbetu, Banda and Barambo). More than 200 languages and dialects are spoken in the territorial entity identified as Congo.
