[4] He embezzled billions of US$,[9] spent large sums on idiosyncratic projects and for his lavish lifestyle, while developing a country-wide system of patronage which encouraged extreme corruption and graft.

Many Zairians had become resentful of Mobutu's repressive and corrupt dictatorship,[14][15] while the FAZ suffered from chronic mismanagement and failures to properly pay the troops.

[16][17] Pay remained so unreliable and poor that most soldiers had to rely on "licensed brigandage" to make a living, and Mobutu accordingly called his own army "The Seventh Scourge".

[4] Mobutu realized that the political situation was changing due to the Cold War's end, an impression furthered by the overthrow and death of his friend Nicolae Ceaușescu, dictator of Romania, in December 1989.

He proclaimed a "Third Republic" with a free press, the end of Authenticité, the introduction of multiparty politics,[4] and the handover of power to a democratically elected government within a year.

[27] He ordered a violent crackdown on protests,[26] and when the DSP was sent to suppress unrest at the University of Lubumbashi, the operation resulted in the deaths of dozens of students.

[27][26] The action caused international outrage, and even Mobutu's long-time allies such as the United States and Belgium finally pressured him to implement actual change.

[28] To appease the demonstrators, the government almost trebled the wages of civil servants in October 1990, even though it could not sustain this move due to the struggling economy.

[30] Just before the conference started, a government official handed out money in front of the Palais du Peuple to all delegates who were willing to found a new party on the spot and promise to support Mobutu.

[28] As the conference broke up without having set a date for the promised elections or implementing any actual changes, however, public frustration escalated in Zaire's capital Kinshasa.

[36] The mutineers then moved into the capital's center using military vehicles,[34] storming shops, gas stations, department stores, and private homes.

[37] Other FAZ soldiers in Kinshasa as well as civilians from the city's southern slums[32] soon joined the "orgy of pillaging", specifically targeting anything representing Mobutism[28] such as government offices, but also foreigner-owned houses and companies.

[32] Civilians also plundered the supermarkets, and began dismantling entire establishments, taking kitchen sinks, toilets, fabric of buildings, steels girders, and other material, even if they could not realistically use it or sell it.

[8] At a General Motors plant near the airport, the soldiers stole hundreds of cars, followed by civilian looters taking the machines, walls, floor, roof, and cables in the ground, eventually leaving only a "skeleton of steel girders".

[14] Historian David Van Reybrouck characterized the extensive looting as reaction to the corruption of the Zairian government; the common people saw themselves as finally able to do what the ruling elite had done in their eyes for decades: steal everything.

The Zairian opposition protested against a foreign intervention, instead proposing a "public salvation government" with Étienne Tshisekedi as Prime Minister of Zaire to bring the situation back under control.

The French Air Force sent a first detachment of soldiers who had been stationed in the Central African Republic to Kinshasa, landing at N'djili Airport after it had been secured by SARM troops commanded by Mahele.

The Belgians launched Operation Blue Beam on the next day, landing troops of the Para Commando Regiment in Congo-Brazzaville and ferrying them across the Zaire River to Kinshasa.

[32] Together with the DSP and SARM, the French and Belgians secured the capital, whereupon Belgium brought in more troops as part of Operation Kir, this time using the N'Dolo Airport.

[14][32][37] Mahele also moved against the mutineers who refused to stop pillaging, and even ordered his loyalist forces to open fire on paratroopers who had previously served under him, killing several.

[25] After the looting, the military bases across the country became ad hoc markets for stolen goods,[35] while at least half the companies which had previously operated in Kinshasa left the city permanently.

[51] On 27 October, Mobutu announced that he would remain President regardless of domestic and international calls for his resignation; parts of the opposition —known as the "Sacred Coalition"— responded by attempting to set up an alternative government.

Shintwa told Van Reybrouck that Mobutu deliberately destroyed Zaire due to him not wanting to leave anything to the opposition, as he knew that his regime would not survive the democratization.

He claimed that Mobutu completely settled in Gbadolite once the CNS began, and did nothing to halt the unrest, as he saw the looting as the just punishment for the people rejecting him in favor of the opposition.

[36] Florentin Mokonda Bonza, who worked in Mobutu's office at the time, also accused the President of directly organizing the unrest to showcase the importance of his firm rule.

[47] All foreign troops left the country in February 1992, when Mobutu used the DSP to "brutally" suppress peaceful protests demanding the continuation of the CNS.

He ordered paratrooper training to be discontinued, officially due to lack of equipment, but mostly out of fear that the 31st Brigade might attempt an airborne attack on the presidential palace to overthrow him.

As a result, Mobutu made Mahele FAZ chief of staff, but removed him from the post when the general called for the military to remain apolitical and for the soldiers' living conditions to be improved.

Mobutu's constitutional mandate as President of Zaire officially expired on 4 December 1991, but he refused to leave office until elections had been held, although such contests were not scheduled.

[56] Another major FAZ mutiny broke out in 1993, with the soldiers again demanding to be paid their back pay[46] after Mobutu attempted to introduce a 5-million Zaire note.