Authenticité (Zaire) banned all outside Christian religious groups, requiring those who would function in Zaire to become part of one of four recognized umbrella groups. The four were: the Kimbanguist Church (a syncretic church of Zairian origin), the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, and "Les Églises du Christ au Zaire" (ECZ, now Church of Christ in Congo), which covered most of the Protestant confessions. All others were declared illegal. The various Protestant churches had to affiliate with the last of these as communities within the ECZ in Zaire. At the time there were numerous local sects and church groups which had sprung
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