 These armies were able to beat back Kagame's Rwandan-Tutsi advances and the Ugandan forces.In the great conflict between 1998 and 2002, during which Congo was divided into three parts, multiple opportunistic militias, called Mai Mai, sprang up, supplied by the arms dealers around the world that profit in small arms trading, including the US, Russia, China, and other countries.Over 5.4 million people died in the conflict, as well as the majority of animals in the region.