Joseph Kabila [SEP] educated at
years to avoid detection by Zairean intelligence agents.
Career.
Career Guerrilla and army years.
Following high school, Kabila followed a military curriculum in Tanzania, then at Makerere University in Uganda. In October 1996, Laurent-Désiré Kabila launched the campaign in Zaire to oust the Mobutu regime with his newly formed army, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL). Joseph Kabila became the commander of an AFDL unit that included "kadogos" (child soldiers) and likely played a
back from the front line.
Joseph Kabila has been described as "a more adept political leader than his father". As Chris Talbot notes, an article in the "Washington Post" "favourably contrasted Joseph Kabila — Western-educated and English-speaking — with his father." The author of the "Washington Post" article writes that Joseph Kabila gave diplomats "hope that things have changed", in contrast to Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who "stood as the major impediment to a peaceful settlement of the