Some 750,000 refugees flooded into DRC following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, thousands travelling through the Virunga Mountains. The refugee camps set up around the border town of Goma lasted for two-and-a-half years and were the biggest the world has ever seen. The massive influx of refugees together with conflict over the country's vast mineral wealth helped touch off ethnic strife and civil war in DRC, which lasted from 1997 to 2002. Rebels from the different warring factions sought refuge in the forests of Virunga National Park.