1990s–2010s: (New Wars, Old Problems — Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide Spilling into Congo, Somalia’s Implosion, Warlords in Sierra Leone and Liberia Exchanging Miner…

1990s–2010s: (New Wars, Old Problems — Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide Spilling into Congo, Somalia’s Implosion, Warlords in Sierra Leone and Liberia Exchanging Minerals for Arms, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, the 2005 Sudan Peace Accord and Darfur’s Continuing Violence, Ongoing Conflict in Angola, Congo, and Somalia in the Early 2000s, Liberia Electing Africa’s First Female Head of State in 2006, and the UN’s Increasing but Still Selective Engagement): Over the last two decades violent conflict has continued in some areas and started afresh in others. While some violence stems from the ending of longstanding dictatorships, much traces back further than the immediate postcolonial era — parts of 1990s–2000s Africa have been evocative of the nineteenth century, with warlords, militia, and struggles for material and political power. The 1994 Rwandan genocide killed some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu, spilling into Congo as Ugandan and Rwandan forces aided Mobutu’s overthrow then fell out over objectives, making eastern Congo a morass of identities and violent entrepreneurialism. Somalia’s implosion opened a vortex of instability, and the US-led Operation Restore Hope ended in disaster. State collapse in Sierra Leone and Liberia produced warlords — leaders of ragged bands of disaffected youth exchanging precious minerals for arms, the economic and political failings of the modern state writ large. The 2005 Sudan peace accord may yet break down because of the South’s secession, while Darfur’s Khartoum-sponsored violence against local populations was frequently characterized as genocidal. Sierra Leone and Liberia began recovery, with Liberia electing Africa’s first female head of state in 2006. The UN has devoted more resources to African conflicts since Rwanda, deploying peacekeepers in Congo and along the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, and establishing the Arusha war crimes tribunal — but armed intervention remains highly selective, and the continent has been awash with cheap weapons since the Cold War’s end.