The Termite Coup

In 1997, as a foreign correspondent covering sub-Saharan Africa, I was among the reporters who chronicled the march to power of a stout, round-faced revolutionary named Laurent Kabila.

By early May of that year, Kabila and his rebels had blazed across the massive central-African country then known as Zaire. Facing minimal resistance from government soldiers, they had captured city after city and deposed the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in just seven months. In mid-May, Kabila’s forces overtook Kinshasa, the capital. Soon they took control of the airport. Government soldiers laid down their weapons. And Mobutu fled after nearly 32 chaotic years in office.

More than two decades later, in January 2021, I was back. I was aghast. I was nauseated.