Laurent-Desire Kabila

1939 – 2001 Congolese Rebel leader, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rebel who toppled Mobutu and became president before being assassinated.

Affiliations: AFDL, earlier Lumumbist rebel movements

Laurent-Desire Kabila fought as a Lumumbist rebel in the 1960s, then led the Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed AFDL coalition that overthrew Mobutu in 1997. He renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo and soon fell out with his former backers, helping ignite the Second Congo War. He was assassinated by a bodyguard in 2001 and succeeded by his son Joseph.

In the timeline

1996 Formation of the AFDL under Laurent-Desire Kabila central figure
1997 Mobutu is overthrown in Zaire mentioned
1997 Mobutu falls and Kabila proclaims the DRC mentioned
2001 Laurent Kabila assassinated, Joseph Kabila succeeds mentioned