Authenticité (Zaire) in different local languages including Kikongo, the "river which swallows all streams". Mobutu also renamed the Congo river and the national currency "Zaire", and referred to them as ""Les Trois Z—Notre Pays, Notre Fleuve, Notre Monnaie"" ("The Three Zs—Our Country, Our River, Our Money"). In addition, cities were renamed appropriately (Léopoldville as Kinshasa and Stanleyville as Kisangani). Streets, bridges, and other geographic features, as well as the armed forces, received name changes. Zairians were urged to drop their Western or Christian names in favor of Zairian names. Mobutu changed his own name from Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku
Zaire two governments into the High Council of Republic–Parliament of Transition (HCR–PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state and Kengo wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedly over the next 2 years, they never took place. By 1996, tensions from the neighbouring Rwandan Civil War and genocide had spilled over to Zaire (see History of Rwanda). Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe), who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of an RPF-led government, had been using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as bases for incursion against Rwanda. These Hutu militia forces soon allied