Zaire

From Linn's "Stamp Issuing Entities Of The World" page.

Zaire (1971-97)
Stamp-issuing status: inactive; Population: 32 million (1987 estimate). The Congo Democratic Republic, formerly the Belgian Congo, adopted the name Zaire in November 1971. After a turbulent first decade of independence, the relative political stability of the 1970s enabled the government to improve the economic condition of Zaire. In 1977 and 1978, Shaban (Katangan) exiles invaded Zaire from Angola. These invasions were defeated with assistance from Morocco, France, Belgium, Egypt and the United States. Although Zaire's President Mobutu accused the Soviet Union and Cuba of sponsoring the rebels, in fact they were former Katangan gendarmes who had fled to Angola after the overthrow of the Tshombe government in Katanga in 1963. Mobutu's corrupt and repressive regime brought economic stagnation to Zaire, and attempts in the early 1990s to establish a multiparty government were unsuccessful. In 1997 a rebellion, supported by Rwandan Tutsis, overthrew Mobutu. The new government, under Laurent Kabilia, assumed the old name of Democratic Republic of the Congo. A new rebel movement, consisting of many of Kabilia's erstwhile allies, arose in 1998, and civil war, with the intervention of many surrounding nations, continues.

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