 In 1980 it became a "commune" separated from the surrounding Pool Department and divided into nine "arrondissements" (boroughs).The city has frequently been a staging ground for wars, including conflicts between rebel and government forces and between forces of the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Angola.It was also the scene of bloody civil wars throughout the 1990s which resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and which forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee the city.