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Prolouge
The spark sailed from the faulty wiring onto the barrel, onto a tiny patch of spilled oil. And so the fire started. Soon, the oil in the barrel started to burn, the barrel promptly exploded, sending flames across the storage room. The flames really stated jumping then, barrel after barrel fell to the fiery beast, burning the black gold into char. As hard as the airmen tried, nothing could stop the fiery blaze. Soon the entire building was ablaze. No planes took off that day, it shouldn't have mattered, there was plenty of oil elsewhere in Zimbabwe.
So to the average Zimbabwean it didn't matter. But it did matter hundreds of miles away, in a place called the Congo, in a city called Kinshasa. There, for the want of an Air force, a continent was changed.
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The fall of Kinshasa was inevitable, rebels had controlled the main power source for some time as well a local mines. Without any outside support the Government troops soon collapsed. By mid-September RCD forces controlled the city. President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was captured while attempting to flee the capital after he had an outburst at a stubborn guard, blowing his cover in seconds. He was brought before a Kangaroo court made up of RCD soldiers under orders to vote guilty for everything. He was unanimously convicted of charges including, but not limited to, corruption, genocide, treason, racketeering, murder, rape and kidnapping. To be fair, his troops did commit atrocities as much as the rebels, especially rape and he urged for a genocide against Tutsis. He was executed by firing squad the next day, it is said that his last words were a "presidential death sentence" on the soldiers making up the firing squad. His last screams were in vain, as the RCD began a looting spree, raping and pika ting the city. But the Democratic Republic of the Congo lived on in two men, Joseph Kabila and Vital Kamerhe. The war was not over by a long shot. In fact it was just starting.
Prolouge
The spark sailed from the faulty wiring onto the barrel, onto a tiny patch of spilled oil. And so the fire started. Soon, the oil in the barrel started to burn, the barrel promptly exploded, sending flames across the storage room. The flames really stated jumping then, barrel after barrel fell to the fiery beast, burning the black gold into char. As hard as the airmen tried, nothing could stop the fiery blaze. Soon the entire building was ablaze. No planes took off that day, it shouldn't have mattered, there was plenty of oil elsewhere in Zimbabwe.
So to the average Zimbabwean it didn't matter. But it did matter hundreds of miles away, in a place called the Congo, in a city called Kinshasa. There, for the want of an Air force, a continent was changed.
________________________________________________
The fall of Kinshasa was inevitable, rebels had controlled the main power source for some time as well a local mines. Without any outside support the Government troops soon collapsed. By mid-September RCD forces controlled the city. President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was captured while attempting to flee the capital after he had an outburst at a stubborn guard, blowing his cover in seconds. He was brought before a Kangaroo court made up of RCD soldiers under orders to vote guilty for everything. He was unanimously convicted of charges including, but not limited to, corruption, genocide, treason, racketeering, murder, rape and kidnapping. To be fair, his troops did commit atrocities as much as the rebels, especially rape and he urged for a genocide against Tutsis. He was executed by firing squad the next day, it is said that his last words were a "presidential death sentence" on the soldiers making up the firing squad. His last screams were in vain, as the RCD began a looting spree, raping and pika ting the city. But the Democratic Republic of the Congo lived on in two men, Joseph Kabila and Vital Kamerhe. The war was not over by a long shot. In fact it was just starting.