Paul Kagame

===Congo wars===
{{main|First Congo War|Second Congo War}}
[[File:Second Congo War Africa map en.png|thumb|Belligerents of the [[Second Congo War]]]]
Although his primary reason for military action in Zaire was the dismantling of the refugee camps, Kagame also began planning a war to remove long-time dictator President [[Mobutu Sese Seko]] from power.{{sfn|Pomfret|1997}} Mobutu had supported the ''genocidaires'' based in the camps, and was also accused of allowing attacks on Tutsi people within Zaire.{{sfn|Byman|Chalk|Hoffman|Rosenau|2001|p=18}} Together with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Kagame supported the newly created [[Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo]] (ADFL), an alliance of four rebel groups headed by [[Laurent-Désiré Kabila]], which began waging the [[First Congo War]].{{sfn|Prunier|2009|pp=113–116}} 

The ADFL, helped by Rwandan and Ugandan troops, took control of North and South Kivu provinces in November 1996 and then advanced west, gaining territory from the poorly organised and demotivated Zairian army with little fighting.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|pp=128–133}} By May 1997, they controlled almost the whole of Zaire except for the capital [[Kinshasa]]; Mobutu fled and the ADFL took the capital without fighting.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|p=136}} The country was renamed as the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] (DRC) and Kabila became the new president.{{sfn|BBC News (II)}} The [[Rwandan Defence Forces]] and the [[Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo|ADFL]] were accused of carrying out mass atrocities during the First Congo War, with as many as 222,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees declared missing.{{sfn|CDI|1998}}

Kagame and the Rwandan government retained strong influence over Kabila following his inauguration, and the RPA maintained a heavy presence in Kinshasa.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|p=174}} Congolese in the capital resented this, as did many in the eastern Kivu provinces, where ethnic clashes increased sharply.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|p=177}} In July 1998, Kabila fired his Rwandan chief-of-staff, [[James Kabarebe]], and ordered all RPA troops to leave the country.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|pp=178–179}} Kagame accused Kabila of supporting the ongoing insurgency against Rwanda from North Kivu, the same accusation he had made about Mobutu.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=210–211}} He responded to the expulsion of his soldiers by backing a new rebel group, the [[Rally for Congolese Democracy]] (RCD), and launching the [[Second Congo War]].{{sfn|Prunier|2009|pp=182–183}} 

The first action of the war was a [[blitzkrieg]] by the RCD and RPA, led by Kabarebe. These forces made quick gains, advancing in twelve days from the Kivu provinces west to within {{convert|130|km|mi|0}} of Kinshasa.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|p=184}} The capital was saved by the intervention of [[Angola]], Namibia and [[Zimbabwe]] on Kabila's side.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|p=186}} Following the failure of the blitzkrieg, the conflict developed into a long-term conventional war, which lasted until 2003 and caused millions of deaths and massive damage.{{sfn|BBC News (II)}} According to a report by the [[International Rescue Committee]] (IRC), this conflict led to the loss of between 3&nbsp;million and 7.6&nbsp;million lives, many through starvation and disease accompanying the social disruption of the war.{{sfn|Associated Press (II)|2010}}

Although Kagame's primary reason for the two wars in the Congo was Rwanda's security, he was alleged to gain economic benefit by exploiting the [[Mining industry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo|mineral wealth]] of the eastern Congo.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|pp=211–212}} The 2001 United Nations ''Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo'' alleged that Kagame, along with Ugandan President Museveni, were "on the verge of becoming the godfathers of the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the continuation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo".{{sfn|United Nations (IV)|2001|loc=211}} The report also claimed that the Rwandan Ministry of Defence contained a "Congo Desk" dedicated to collecting taxes from companies licensed to mine minerals around [[Kisangani]], and that substantial quantities of [[coltan]] and diamonds passed through Kigali before being resold on the international market by staff on the Congo Desk.{{sfn|United Nations (IV)|2001|loc=126–129}} 

International NGO [[Global Witness]] also conducted field studies in early 2013. It concluded that minerals from North and South Kivu are exported illegally to Rwanda and then marketed as Rwandan.{{sfn|Global Witness|2013|p=6}} Kagame dismissed these allegations as unsubstantiated and politically motivated; in a 2002 interview with newsletter ''[[Africa Confidential]],'' Kagame said that if solid evidence against Rwandan officers was presented, it would be dealt with very seriously.{{sfn|Smith|Wallis|2002}} In 2010, the United Nations released a report accusing the Rwandan army of committing wide scale human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the [[First Congo War|First]] and [[Second Congo War]]s, charges denied by the Rwandan government.{{sfn|McGreal|2010}}