July 10, 1999
Web posted at: 5:16 a.m. EDT (0916 GMT)

LUSAKA, Zambia (CNN) -- Africa's biggest conflict, the 11-month civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, may at last come to an end Saturday.

African leaders were gathering in the Zambian capital Lusaka to sign the cease-fire agreement, hammered out by ministers from seven nations and two rebel groups in two weeks of sometimes acrimonious negotiations in Lusaka.

"We must make (the cease-fire) work. We cannot have stability and development and guarantee the future of our people without peace," said Namibian President Sam Nujoma.

The brutal conflict is seen as a barrier to needed investment and economic development in Africa, the world's poorest continent.

At least six African countries have sent troops to the former Zaire, the continent's third largest country.

Uganda and Rwanda back the rebels while Namibia, Chad and, cruically, Angola and Zimbabwe have thrown their military weight behind Congo President Laurent Kabila.

Aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan war

Under the peace agreement, the fighting in Congo must end within 24 hours. A unified army is to be created after 90 days of national dialogue, during which rebels can hold their territorial gains.

U.N. peacekeepers are to be deployed after 120 days, and all armed groups are supposed to disarm in the same period. After 180 days, all outside troops must withdraw.

"These are not struggles to get power, these are not struggles to control the capital, these are struggles to bring fundamental changes in the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Bizima Karaha, Kabila's former minister of foreign affairs, who left the government for the rebels' cause.

The pact provides for a peace enforcement operation to track down Hutu militias and other armed groups. The Hutu militiamen are implicated in the genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.

Rwanda's tutsi-dominated government entered Congo to fight the Hutu militia -- although Congo accused Rwanda of seeking territorial gain.

The other nations entered the war for their own financial and security interests.

Correspondent Christopher Hines and Reuters contributed to this report.

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