Zaire Zaire Zaire (), officially the Republic of Zaire (; ), was the name for the Democratic Republic of the Congo that existed between 1971 and 1997 in Central Africa. The country was a one-party totalitarian dictatorship, run by Mobutu Sese Seko and his ruling Popular Movement of the Revolution party. Zaire was established following Mobutu's seizure of power in a military coup in 1965, following five years of political upheaval following independence known as the Congo Crisis. Zaire had a strongly centralist constitution, and foreign assets were nationalised. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second Congolese Republic. A
Zairean zaire zaïres" instead of "cinq millions "de" zaïres". The New Zaire (French: "Nouveau Zaïre"), symbol "NZ", ISO 4217 code ZRN, replaced the first zaire in 1993 at an exchange rate of 1 new zaire = 3,000,000 old zaires. It was subdivided into 100 new makuta (symbol: "NK"). This currency was only issued in banknote form and suffered from similarly high inflation to its predecessor. The new zaire was replaced by the Congolese franc again on 1 July 1998, at an exchange rate of 1 franc = 100,000 new zaires shortly after the Republic of Zaire became the Democratic Republic of the