Mozambique: African leaders' meeting in Maputo to discuss continental conflicts Paris AFP (World Service) in English 0211 GMT 07 Jul 03 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Monday, July 7, 2003 Journal Code: 2131 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT Document Type: Daily Report; News Word Count: 1,080 MAPUTO, July 7 (AFP) - African heads of state meeting in Maputo this week at the African Union's second summit will consider conflicts around the continent: ALGERIA Violence involving armed Islamic groups has led to an official death toll of more than 100,000 since 1992. ANGOLA The Angolan army signed a ceasefire with the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in April 2000 to end 27 years of civil war. In 2002 the army launched an offensive in the Cabinda enclave between the two Congos to mop up independent armed factions. BURUNDI A civil war which has been dragging on since 1993 pits the Tutsi-dominated army against Hutu rebels in this tiny central African nation, formerly under Belgian rule. The fighting is estimated to have left some 300,000 dead, mostly civilians. In 2002 three of the four rebel movements signed a ceasefire with the Bujumbura government, but the fighting continued. In April, under a power-sharing accord negotiated by South Africa, Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, took over as president from Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi. In January, the AU decided to undertake its first military mission -- sending troops to Burundi to monitor the peace agreement. The first of the 2,800 AU troops arrived in April. CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC General Fran?ois Bozize launched a rebellion in November 2001 and overthrew president Ange-Felix Patasse on March 15, 2003. He has installed a transitional regime scheduled to end in January 2005. The country has been excluded from the Maputo summit as a result of the coup. CHAD The Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) has been fighting a guerrilla war in the far north of the west African country since 1998. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC - formerly ZAIRE) The DRC has been ravaged by a war which erupted in August 1998 as a rebellion, but which quickly drew in other countries. Troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe supported the Kinshasa government, while soldiers from Rwanda and Uganda fought alongside the rebels and Burundian troops crossed the border to protect their own country from Burundian rebels in the east of the huge central African country. The war is estimated to have left as many as three or four million dead, mostly civilians, with many casualties resulting from war-induced illness and starvation. After a peace agreement negotiated in South Africa, President Joseph Kabila named a government of national unity on June 30 to prepare for the first democratic elections since those on independence from Belgium in 1960. An international peacekeeping force is deploying in the northeastern Ituri region, where fighting between tribes is continuing. REPUBLIC OF CONGO Two civil wars in the southwestern Poole region between 1998 and 2003 left several thousand dead. A peace agreement was reached in the central African country in March. IVORY COAST Once stable and prosperous Ivory Coast was plunged into political and military crisis when soldiers rebelled in September 2002. The cocoa-producing west African nation was split in two, with three rebel movements holding the north. Mediation efforts under way since the end of January, including a peace agreement signed in Marcoussis, France, the former colonial power which sent in peacekeeping troops, resulted in the formation of a government of national unity and a comprehensive ceasefire. LIBERIA The regime of President Charles Taylor has been fighting, since 1999, the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), active in the north. A second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) fought in the southeast. On June 5, LURD rebels launched an offensive against Monrovia, coming within five kilometres (three miles) of the centre of the capital of the west African state founded by freed American slaves before withdrawing. The government and the rebels signed a ceasefire in Accra, the capital of neighbouring Ghana, which envisaged an eventual transitional government without Taylor, but heavy fighting resumed. On July 4, the defence ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) approved an intervention force of 3,000 troops. Calls are growing for US troops to intervene. MAURITANIA Loyalist forces put down an attempted putsch by a group of army officers against President Maaouiya Ould Taya after 36 hours of fighting on June 8-9. NIGERIA The installation since 2000 of Islamic sharia law in 12 northern states resulted in violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. Some 10,000 people have been killed in tribal, religious and political fighting since the west African nation's return to civilian rule in 1999. SENEGAL A secessionist movement has been fighting in the southern Casamance region since 1982. SOMALIA Somalia, with no effective government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, has been ruled by feuding clans since then. American and other international forces intervened in the Horn of Africa nation in December 1992 to protect food aid from looters, but ended up involved in the battles. The US troops pulled out after fighting in Mogadishu against militiamen of the late General Mohamed Farah Aidid in 1993, when the bodies of slain Americans were dragged through the streets -- a scene shown on US television which made American leaders leery of any further involvement in African conflicts. SUDAN A civil war pitting the Islamic and Arabic north against black animist and Christian rebels in the south since 1983 has left more than 1,500,000 dead. Peace negotiations continue in Kenya between the Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). UGANDA Government troops have been fighting rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north since 1988, and other rebels in the east of the country who use the DRC as a rear-base. LRA tactics are notable for the kidnapping of children to become soldiers and mistresses for the rebels. The fighting has left tens of thousands dead. WESTERN SAHARA Morocco and the Polisario Front have disputed rule of this former Spanish colony since 1975. A ceasefire was agreed in 1991 under the auspices of the United Nations, which has been trying since then to find a political settlement to the crisis. Morocco is not a member of the AU because the body recognises the Polisario Front.