Still, competition struck over the control of ivory and the topic of the humanitarian pledges given by Leopold II, King-Sovereign of the Congo Free State, to the Berlin Conference to end slavery.

[5] The Free State did not counterattack, and Tippu Tip began to move more men into the Congo, including several Arab slaver captains and some Congolese leaders, e.g. Ngongo Lutete.

[citation needed] Additionally, Tippu Tip was to redirect his ivory trade through the Congo Free State, to the Atlantic Ocean ports and he was to assist King Leopold II ‘s forces in their expeditions to the Upper Nile, to help further expand his territories.

In Belgium, the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1888, mainly by Roman Catholic intellectuals led by Count Hippolyte d'Ursel, aimed to abolish the East African slave trade.

[citation needed] Free State authorities stringently adhered to the provisions of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 which prohibited the trade of breechloading firearms and ammunition in "tropical" parts of Africa.

[8] In March and April 1892, Tippu Tip's son Sefu bin Hamid began attacking Congo Free State personnel in eastern Congo, including ivory trader Arthur Hodister—sent by the Syndicat Commercial du Katanga to 'acquire' ivory—and Captain Guillaume Van Kerckhoven, who had been forcefully confiscating ivory from several powerful Arab traders.

[9] The Force Publique army led by Francis Dhanis, consisted of a few dozen Belgian officers and several thousand African auxiliaries.

[15] By this time, the Congo Free State gained military strength in the region and became less tolerant of "Arab" strongmen, determined to stamp them out.

[19] By 1891, the slavers had control of the lake's entire western shore, apart from the region defended by Joubert around Mpala and St Louis de Mrumbi.

[21] When the Jacques expedition arrived, Joubert's garrison was down to about 200 men, poorly armed with "a most miscellaneous assortment of Chassepots, Remingtons and muzzle-loaders, without suitable cartridges."

[25] On 3 January 1892, Captain Alphonse Jacques' anti-slavery expedition founded the Albertville fortress on Lake Tanganyika's shores, and tried to end the slave trade in the region.

Eventually, Rumaliza's forces had to retreat because of the arrival of the Long-Duvivier-Demol Anti-Slavery expedition, a relief column sent from Brussels at captain Alphonse Jacques's aide.

[21] On 28 January 1893, Congo Free State forces reached the western bank of the Lualaba River opposite the city of Nyangwe, a major trading port for slaves and ivory in the region.

[26] The forces made no attempt to cross and instead established a camp on their side of the river, though over subsequent weeks they occasionally fired musket rounds at the city.

Free State Army Captain Sidney Langford Hinde wrote that by the time the troops departed, the city "had been reduced from a well-built town of about thirty thousand inhabitants to one large fortified house with a soldiers' camp around it.

[31] Caught between the Free State troops, the Arab defenders as well as civilians and slaves fled the city, letting it fall to their attackers in two hours.

[30] The Force Publique found a large supply store at Kasongo, including ivory, ammunition, food and luxuries such as sugar, candles, gold, and crystal tableware.

[31] In 1893, Louis-Napoléon Chaltin was head of the Force Publique station at Basoko—the camp at Basoko had been established by the Congo Free State as a precaution, in the event of a quarrel with the Arab slave and ivory traders at Stanley Falls.

Chaltin arrived at Stanley Falls on 18 May, where Captain Tobback and Lieutenant Van Lint had for five days been resisting the attacks of the forces of Rashid ben Mohammed, the nephew of Tippu Tip.

He immediately collected all the troops he could, took Captain Hubert Lothaire and some men from Bangala with him and followed the Arab units, who had fled from the Stanley Falls up the river.

[44] On 9 January 1894, Belgian reinforcements arrived under Captain Hubert Lothaire, and the same day a shell blew up Rumaliza's ammunition store and burned down the fort containing it.

[46] With the absence of these markets and the Arab traders themselves, much of Congo's exports were rerouted from their destinations in East Africa to the Stanley Pool and the Atlantic Ocean.

[48] The participation of the Batetela and Bakusu tribes in the war marked the transcendence of their societies' traditional values by desires for wealth and power through expansionism, assimilation, and cultural exchange.