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Ilungan Republic

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Ilunga, officially the Ilungan Republic, is a unitary presidential republic in central Zanobia. Bordered by Kulembe and Kabamba to the west, Eningui and Ganga to the south, and Ruera and South Puaquassi to the east, it is one of the largest countries in central Zanobia. Despite its significant natural resources and robust riverine trade, Ilunga has one of the lowest GDPs in Zanobia, having been plagued by constant political instability and warlordism since the Lombian Sea Disaster, which saw the limnic eruption of the Lombian Sea, decimating the Ilungan coastline and killing a third of the country's population.

The central government in Yamvo remains the sole political entity recognized by the Coalition. In order to protect its interests, the Sovereign Zanobia Mining Corporation has hired the services of Centurion Security, Executive Contract Forces and Hummel Group, who also assist the Ilungan central government (CENTGOV) in operations against rebel forces. The Boya Equatorial Aerospaceport remains a key strategic facility in the country, directly operated by the SZMC. Due to this dubious relationship between the Ilungan government and foreign corporations, the Commonwealth and Union State have each backed different governments-in-exile in Ilunga, denouncing the CENTGOV as little more than a corporate-neocolonial client state.

History
Political upheaval following the Twilight War served as the catalyst for the end of the Kingdom of Ilunga, which had been formed in the 7th century S.C. under Mestraic influence. The Ilungan Revolution in 0021 R.C. saw a military coup against King Badros VII Ndaye Nyembo perpetrated by military officers and supported by students politically supportive of the republican cause, motivated by lagging modernization endeavors and the king's relative distance from the Ilungan people.

Following a brief provisional junta headed by Laon Kalonji Kalala, the Ilungan Republic would be established in 0023 R.C. with Kalonji as president, ideologically inspired by the Prostasism of the nascent Union State. As such, wide-spanning efforts to modernize, expand literacy, and combat tribalism among the populace. Vast infrastructural projects would be undertaken in the decade to follow. However, initiatives to nationalize Ilunga's natural resources led to heightened concern among Coalition member-states regarding their investments in Zanobia, especially as the drive towards space heightened the strain on Plateian resources. Hedging on a mixture of reactionary elements dissatisfied with Kalonji's administration, Coalition Space Fleet Intelligence backed a coup d'etat. The 0038 Ilungan Military Coup installed a Coalition-friendly government in Ilunga under general Badrikios Tshinyama Ilunga, reversing prior drives towards nationalizing resources.

General Tshinyama's administration maintained extensive ties with the Coalition, all the while espousing Ilungan nationalism and Pan-Zanobian ideas. In 0041, he established the Pan-Zanobian Ilungan Party, which served as the sole legal political party under his administration. Coalition investments in the country expanded greatly in the 0040s, with the multinational Sovereign Zanobia Mining Corporation acting on the behalf of Coalition megacorporations like Coriolis and Mitsubara.

Despite rising megacorporate influence, Ilunga remained prosperous, even as other Zanobian countries fell into recession with the early onset of the Zanobian Crash. This was further helped by General Tshinyama's lax approach to economics, slashing corporate regulations and legalizing gambling. Ilunga rose to the forefront of pop culture abroad with the historic Thunder in the Jungle boxing match in 0045. The Boya Equatorial Aerospaceport would be completed in 0047, just as the Zanobian Crash hit Ilunga in particular. Following a catastrophic bank run, Ilunga was thrown into economic freefall. General Tshinyama's administration took on significant amounts of debt, imposing severe austerity measures on the public and privatizing the country's nascent space program—which was then bought out and merged into the SZMC.

Attempts at economic recovery—or, at the very least, stemming the freefall—would come grinding to a halt in 0051 R.C. with the limnic eruption of the Lombian Sea. An uncalculated amount of carbon dioxide—estimated around 12 gigatonnes of CO2—was released in the ecological disaster, depopulating the Ilungan northern coast and killing a third of the Ilungan population. Tsholola Ilunga was killed in the disaster, leading to the almost immediate collapse of his government. Military leaders became provincial warlords, while others outright rebelled against the defunct regime. With their financial interests threatened by the crisis, and investors panicking, the SZMC was forced into a hasty response. Hiring the services of the Coriolis-affiliated Executive Contract Forces, the SZMC backed warlord Lorandios Kashala Kabange in his seizure of the capital, Yamvo, in 0052. Kashala declared himself the legal successor to General Tshinyama's government, quickly reorganizing his forces with the assistance of the ECF. Aiming for a hasty restoration of control over the country, he engaged in mass conscription in his held territories, including the use of child soldiers.

Despite the success of Kashala's campaigns, his military operations devastated vast swathes of Ilunga. The Ilunga People's Organization, established by insurgents and student organizations loyal to Kalonji Kalala's ideals, emerged as the foremost organized resistance opposing the central government. At the verge of reunifying the country, Kashala was assassinated in 0058 by IPO assassins, suspected to have been Oprichniki of the Union State. The power vacuum immediately led to a rapid fracturing of his lightning campaign, with his army fracturing among warlords. With a restoration of order failing in Ilunga, the SZMC hired further mercenary forces to guard their mining operations, including the Hummel Group and Centurion Security.

Amidst the chaos, interior minister Yosib Mutombo Ngoy assumed control of government. Rather than embark on another devastating campaign, Mutombo worked primarily towards reconstruction endeavors, cooperation with corporate entities, and attending to the swelling crisis of refugees in the capital. Concessions were made to foreign private military forces, effectively granting them authority over their respective jurisdictions—and thus the resources to finance and supply their operations autonomously. The central government was gradually able to recuperate territory with the assistance of mercenary forces, but Mutombo remained hesitant of entering needless conflict with warlord armies to the west and east.

The desire to drive the Union State-aligned IPO out of western Ilunga led to cooperation between Centurion Security and the Western Army, a CENTGOV-aligned warlord army established by General Arrikos Kabasele Kabongo after Kashala's assassination. The ensuing Operation Lightning Rod saw the IPO almost entirely driven out of Ilunga, forced to retreat into neighboring Kulembe. Ideological schism within the IPO, particularly regarding its alignment with the Union State and the perceived failure of republicanism in Ilunga, led to the establishment of the Ilunga National Movement, which aimed to restore the throne of Ilunga and install Alaksandros XVI Kasongo wa Dibwe, direct descendant of King Badros VII Ndaye Nyembo. With the backing of the Commonwealth, the INM began cross-border raids into Ilunga by the 0070s.

Nevertheless, the Ilungan conflict deintensified in the 0070s, with detente between the CENTGOV and unaligned warlords persisting under Mutombo's leadership, achieving a tenuous national accord. Reconstruction focused primarily on civilian infrastructure, leading to a number of urban expansions in and around Yamvo. Degassing efforts were undertaken in the Lombian Sea to avoid a second disaster on the scale of the 0051 eruption, while also attracting SZMC investment into offshore rigs to harness oil and gas. Counterinsurgency operations and cross-border raids against the IPO and INM persisted, however, leading to a heightened presence of Union State and Commonwealth expeditionary forces in the region, particularly Quisquellan internationalists.

This avenue of reconstruction utterly fell apart in the 0080s, as the Novadietan Space Boom led to a crash in the price of oil, casting the country into renewed instability once more. Mutombo Ngoy's passing in 0083 marked the end of 30 years of his leadership, further exacerbating the ongoing crisis and leading to offensives from emboldened IPO and INM forces. His vice president and former defense minister, Dasidarios Kashala Lumumba, would succeed him, commencing a series of aggressive offensives against the INM and IPO to meet the upheavals following Mutombo's passing. Hummel Group incursions into northern Ganga would lead to the Ilungan Border War (0084-0087 R.C.) which saw the Gangan and Quisquellan militaries confront the Ilungan military, as well as the CFA and private military forces. Initial victories against Commonwealth-aligned forces would ultimately be cut short by the crushing defeat at Mukunamitwe, which effectively solidified the INM presence in southern Ilunga. The border war would wholly conclude with the rebellion of the Masician-backed Revolutionary People's Army, which achieved a number of immediate and crushing blows against the CENTGOV-aligned Northern Army. The ensuing Great Lakes War (0087-0094 R.C.) would see the RPA partially driven back, though attempts to fully dislodge them from Ilunga were unsuccessful.

Kashala's lukewarm performance against rebel forces led him to accede to Coalition pressures for democratic elections in 0095, leading to the country's first truly democratic elections in 0098 R.C. The legally-restored Pan-Zanobian Ilungan Party would prevail in these elections, leading to the administration of Odikios Kimba Bolongo. Appealing to Coalition political sensibilities, Kimba Bolongo formalized the warlord system into 'Military-Civilian Authorities', which continued to be governed by their respective leaders. Opposition parties were permitted, though the IPO, RPA, INM and their respective political beliefs remained barred from the new system. Still, Kimba Bolongo's presidency would last three terms, ending in 0110 R.C. with the election of Baliks Kimba Kayembe, his son and former defense minister. Kimba Kayembe has largely maintained the policies of his father, upholding some semblances of democratic administration while avoiding the ire of the megacorporations that keep his government in power. Ever since the Colony War, however, rebel groups have been gradually gaining ground, backed by the advisors of foreign blocs, while an overextended CFA finds itself unable to lend as much support as it once could. While the Ilungan military has been trained into a somewhat decent fighting force, mercenaries remain the definitive deciding factor in the stability of the Ilungan CENTGOV.