Ernest Wamba dia Wamba

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba (French pronunciation: ​[ɛʁnɛst wɑ̃ba dja wɑ̃ba]; 1942 – July 15, 2020) was a prominent Congolese academic and political theorist who became a commander of the Kisangani faction of the rebel Rally for Congolese Democracy during the Second Congo War.

Wamba dia Wamba died on July 15, 2020, in a hospital in Kinshasa where he had been hospitalized for multiple days. The cause of death has been reported as an asthma attack.

A May 2008 article authored by Jacques Depelchin warned that there were new threats to assassinate Wamba.

Wamba was faced with an internal revolt by Mbusa Nyamwisi, leading to another split in his party's faction. His organization remained known as the RCD-Kisangani (RCD-K), while the Nyamwisi-led group was known as the RCD-ML. In 2001, Wamba denounced a Ugandan proposal to unite the RCD-K, RCD-ML and Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) as an unwelcome foreign imposition. The further disintegration of the RCD-K to the point it was without any significant military force may have been the result of Ugandan withdrawal of its support. This action, which took place as the Ituri conflict continued escalating, was seen by some members of the Lendu ethnic group as a support against what they saw as the pro-Hema bias of Uganda.

At the beginning of the Second Congo War against the government of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Wamba was unanimously elected head of the rebel Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), which was backed by Uganda and Rwanda and based in the town of Goma. However, the RCD gradually split from November 1998 until 16 May 1999, as it became clear that Rwanda and its supporters' goals were limited to replacement of Kabila. Several attempts were made on Wamba's life during this period, coinciding with attempts to destroy his political power in the RCD.

On 16 May 1999, Émile Ilunga was named the new head of the RCD after manoeuvring by Rwanda, and Wamba fled to the Ugandan-controlled town of Kisangani. The faction of the RCD he maintained control of was variously known as the Movement for Liberation (RCD-ML), RCD-Kisangani, or RCD-Wamba. The main faction is sometimes referred to as RCD-Goma. The two factions shortly engaged in fierce battles in Kisangani, following which Wamba retreated to Bunia in the Ituri region of the northeastern DRC.

In December 1997, Wamba was named a recipient of the Dutch Prince Claus Award for Culture and Development. The announcement of the award cited his "scholarly contribution to the development of African philosophy and for sparking off the philosophical debate on social and political themes in Africa." At this time he also worked closely with Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere to end the Burundi Civil War.

In 1980, he accepted a position as Professor of History at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In 1981, while visiting his parents' village in Zaire, he was arrested by the government of Mobutu Sese-Seko for possessing a paper he had authored that was deemed 'subversive', and was detained for one year. He continued his role as a prominent figure in both academia and political circles in Africa. He is the former president of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) as well as the founder and president of the philosophy club at the University of Dar es Salaam. He was an expert in the Palaver (politics) and other indigenous forms of African democracy. He participated in the Sovereign National Conference, held from 1990 through 1992 in Zaire. In 1997 he co-authored with Jacques Depelchin, the African Declaration Against Genocide.