Timeline: Congo DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo was formerly named the Belgian
Congo and later Zaire. Bantus are the majority ethnic group in
Congo. This nation of 45 million is the 3rd largest in Africa.
(NH, 7/96, p.14)(SFC, 10/26/96, p.A8)(SFC,
Congo DRC is about two-thirds size of western Europe.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.41)
88000BCE The Katanda site in
Zaire was dated to this time. Evidence in the 1990s showed bone
points showed barbs on 3 edges and rings carved in the base to tie
them to shafts.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A2)
1400-1500 The Kongo empire consisted of six
provinces ruled by a monarch, the Manikongo of the Bakongo (Kongo
peoples), but its sphere of influence extended to the neighboring
states as well. Kongo’s king ruled about two million people. The
capital, Mbanza, was built on a fertile plateau 100 miles east of
the coast and 50 miles south of the Congo River in southwest Africa.
1482 Captain Diego Cao sailed
south along the African coast and landed at the mouth of the Zaire
(Congo) River. He left four servants and took four Africans hostage
back to his king, John, in Portugal. This was the first European
encounter with the vast kingdom of the Kongo.
1483 Captain Diogo Cao visited
Manikongo Nzinga in his capital, Mbanza, and persuaded the king to
open his country to the Portuguese. Then were 6 states in the
region: Sonho, Bamba, Pemba, Batta, Fango and Sundi. This last one
(capital Ambezi) was the first to accept the Portuguese
1526 Jul 6, King Afonso of
Kongo (1509-1542) sent a letter of complaint to Portugal regarding
the impact of slave trade in his country.
c1796 The Tutsi herders, Banyamulenge (people of
the mountains), arrived into Zaire some 200 years ago. They moved
with their cattle into the hills of Masisi in North Kivu and
mountains of South Kivu.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)
1874 David Stanley, British
journalist, crossed Africa from the east to the west across the
Congo River basin on a 999-day journey sponsored by London’s Daily
Telegraph. In 2004 Tim Butcher, also a journalist for the Daily
Telegraph, followed Stanley’s path on a trip that took 44 days. In
2008 Butcher authored “Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken
(WSJ, 10/31/08, p.A15)
1876 Sep 14, Henry Morton
Stanley's expedition left Rwanda.
1876 Oct 17, Henry Morton
Stanley's expedition reached the Lualaba River.
1877 Jun 3, Frank Pocock,
British explorer, drowned in the Congo.
1877 Henry Morton Stanley, a
Welsh-born American explorer, emerged from the forests of Africa
near the mouth of the Congo River. He had traced the river to its
source. In 1878 he authored “Through the Dark Continent."
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)(WSJ, 11/3/07, p.W8)
1880 Catholicism became
established in Congo.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)
1880-1920 The population of Congo was halved due
to murder, starvation, exhaustion, exposure, disease, and a lowered
birth rate due to the exploitation by King Leopold II.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)
1881 May 8, Henry Morton
Stanley signed a contract with a Congo monarch. [see Sep 24]
1881 Sep 24, Henry Morton
Stanley signed a contract with Congo monarch. [see May 8]
1883 Stanleyville (later
Kisangani), Congo, was founded by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the
Anglo-American journalist who tracked down the missionary David
Livingstone in Africa.
1884 Feb 26, Leopold II of
Belgium signed in Congo a British and Portuguese treaty.
1884 Roger Casement of Ulster
joined an expedition up the Congo River led by Henry Morton Stanely.
After 20 years in Africa he became the leading figure in an int’l.
campaign to denounce the abuses committed by the Congo’s Belgian
(Econ, 7/7/12, p.75)
1885 Feb 26, The Congress of
Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
1885 May 2, The Congo Free
State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
1885 A treaty made in Berlin
called for the humane treatment of Africans.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1887 The inflatable bicycle
tire was invented and spawned, along with the car tire, a worldwide
(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.9)
1890 William Sheppard (b.1865
in Virginia) left the US for missionary work in Congo. In 2002 Pagan
Kennedy authored "Black Livingstone: A True Tale of African
(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.M1)
c1890-1899 In the late 19th century Belgium
established the Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa. It was a
result of the country’s colonial venture in the Belgian Congo, later
Zaire, later Democratic Republic of Congo. The museum was founded as
a showcase for business opportunities on the Congo.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.E1)
1891 Jul 31, Great Britain
declared territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within
their sphere of influence.
1892 William Sheppard, US
missionary, set out to find the hidden kingdom of Kuba and
eventually made contact with King Kot aMweeky.
(SSFC, 2/3/02, p.M1)
1893 Mar 4, Francis Dhanis'
army attacked the Lualaba and occupied Nyangwe (Congo).
1893 Mar 9, Congo cannibals
killed 1000s of Arabs.
c1898 Edmund Dene Morel, a London employee of the
shipping line Elder Dempster, came to realize that a wealth of
rubber and ivory cargo was arriving from Congo in exchange for
military officers, firearms and ammunition. He deduced that forced
labor was being used by King Leopold II of Belgium to extract native
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.4)
1901 Edmund Dene Morel (28)
quit his London shipping line job and began a full time campaign to
expose the barbarities in the Congo under Leopold II. He started his
own publication, "The West African Mail," an illustrated weekly
journal in 1903 as a forum on West and Central African Questions.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.4)(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7)
1903 May, In Britain the House
of Commons passed a resolution urging that Congo natives be governed
with humanity. Also the British consul in the Congo, Roger Casement,
was asked to travel to the interior and report on conditions there.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.8)
1903 Jun 29, The British
government officially protested Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
Missionaries, such as William Sheppard of Virginia, had provided
information that soldiers of Leopold’s private army turned over the
right hand of villagers they had killed in order to account for
their used bullets. Leopold’s 19,000 man private army held hostage
the wives of workers to force men to work.
(HN, 6/29/98)(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7,8)
1903 Samuel Verner, an American
missionary and explorer, purchased Ota Benga, a young pigmy enslaved
by another tribe. He was under contract to the St. Louis Fair to
bring several Pygmies to America for a living display of the stages
of evolution. After the fair Benga ended up at the Bronx Zoological
Park where he was displayed with monkeys. In 1910 Benga moved to a
Baptist seminary in Lynchburg, Va. In 1916 Benga committed suicide.
(WSJ, 2/6/06, p.B1)
1904 The Congo Reform
Association was born in England following the return of Roger
Casement from the Congo and his meeting with Edmund Morel.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.9)
1904 Edmund Morel journeyed to
the US and encouraged the formation of an American Congo Reform
Association. Its first president was Dr. G. Stanley Hall, president
of Clark Univ.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.11)
1905 Mark Twain wrote his
pamphlet "King Leopold’s Soliloquy" in support of reform in the
Congo. US Sec. of State Elihu Root was pressured to take action on
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.11)
1906 Edmund Morel wrote "Red
Rubber: the Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo
in the year of Grace 1906."
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.9)
1908 King Leopold II (d.1909)
turned the Congo over to Belgium for a large sum of money. It was
later estimated that the population of Congo dropped by 10 million
people during the period of Leopold’s rule and its immediate
aftermath. In 1998 Adam Hochschild published "King Leopold’s Ghost:
A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa."
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1919 Nov 10, Moise Tshombe was
born. He became Pres. of Katanga and then premier of the Congo
1920-1929 Medical studies in 2014 confirmed that the common ancestor
of HIV-1 group M virus originated in Kinshasa about this time.
(Econ, 10/4/14, p.88)
1924 The permanent committee of
the National Colonial Congress of Belgium (Congo) declared: "We run
the risk of someday seeing our native population collapse and
disappear… So that we will see ourselves confronted with a kind of
(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.9)
1924 Edward Dene Morel, Congo
activist, was elected to the British Parliament. He soon died of a
heart attack at age 51.
(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.12)
1925 Jul 2, Patrice Lumumba,
revolutionary, was born in Congo.
1925 CongoDRC’s Virunga
National Park, a 7,800-square-km (3,011-square-mile) park, was
created. It was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
1930 Oct 14, Joseph Desire
Mobutu was born in Congo.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A1)
1938 G. Trolli, an Italian
physician working in the Belgian Congo (Zaire), reported a condition
called konzo meaning "tied legs." It was later found to occur over
wide areas of Central Africa and related to cyanide poison from
improper preparation of cassava root.
(NH, 7/96, p.14)(Econ, 9/7/13, p.78)
1938 In the Belgian Congo the
5,000 square km (1,900 square mile) Garamba National Park was
1940 The Belgian colonial
government in Leopoldville (later Kinshasa), Congo, ordered private
mining companies to turn over their records to help the Allies find
resources to help the war effort against Germany. Millions of tons
of copper and tin, as well as some uranium, were shipped to the US.
After the war records were shipped to Belgium’s Royal Museum for
Central Africa in Brussels.
(WSJ, 3/20/07, p.A13)
1948 Congolese musician Antoine
Kolosay, aka Papa Wendo, wrote his song "Marie-Louise," a eulogy to
the sister of his guitarist.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.66)
1957 A sizeable nationalist
movement emerged in Congo and rapidly gained momentum.
1957 Dr. Hilary Koprowski of
the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia developed an oral polio vaccine
and tested it in Africa (Congo). The Wister polio vaccine was given
to some 300,000 people in the Belgian Congo from 1957-1960. A later
theory held that reuse of needles during the immunization program
caused AIDS via “serial passage" that transformed the SIV virus into
HIV. In 1999 Edward Hooper authored “The River," a detailed
hypothesis for the origin of AIDS in Africa. Hooper suspected that
the Wister polio vaccine, produced from monkey kidney cells,
contained SIV virus. In 2000 a computerized study indicated that the
AIDS virus was introduced to humans about 1930.
p.A19)(SFC, 1/15/01, p.A11)(SFC, 4/13/05, p.A5)
1959 Nov 1, Patrice Lumumba was
arrested in the Belgian Congo.
1959 Congo’s Mobutu became an
asset of the US CIA during a meeting in Brussels.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)
1959 In the Belgian Congo a
50-kilowatt Triga Mark I nuclear reactor made by Gen’l. Atomic of
San Diego went on line.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A1)
1959 Researchers in 1998 found
the HIV virus of AIDS in a 1959 blood specimen (ZR59) from a Bantu
man who died in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo (later Kinshasa, Congo).
This became the oldest known case and researchers believed that
incidents could go back to the 1940s.
1960 Jun 23, Patrice Lumumba
and the MNC formed the first government, with Lumumba (35) as
Congo's first prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu (1917-1969) as its
1960 Jun 30, Independence was
granted to the Congo. A rebel movement freed the Belgian Congo from
Belgium. In Zaire (Congo) Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) became the
first post-independence prime minister. He made Joseph Mobutu, a
young military officer, his private secretary. Two months after he
took power a sub-committee of the US National Security Council
authorized the assassination of Lumumba.
p.A14)(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.18)
1960 Jul 11, Katanga province,
with the support of Belgian business interests and troops, broke
away from the new Congolese government of Patrice Lumumba, declaring
independence under Moise Tshombe leader of the local CONAKAT party.
This led to five years of mayhem.
1960 Jul 16, The 1st UN troops
reached Congo to replace Belgian troops.
1960 Aug 25, In Congo
demonstrations took place against premier Lumumba.
1960 Sep 5, Congo’s President
Kasavubu fired Premier Lumumba.
1960 Sep 14, A Congo coup led
by Col. Mobutu overthrew PM Patrice Lumumba.
1960 Nov 27, Patrice Lumumba
fled Leopoldville, Congo.
1960 Dec 1, Patrice Lumumba was
caught in the Congo.
1961 Jan 17, Patrice Lumumba
(34), the 1st premier Congo, was murdered after 67 days in office.
President Eisenhower allegedly approved the assassination of Congo's
Patrice Lumumba. The US and Joseph Mobutu were implicated but no
conclusive proof has emerged. Sidney Gottlieb (d.1999 at 80), a CIA
deputy, carried a deadly bacteria to the Congo that was used to kill
Lamumba. In 2000 the Belgium Parliament opened an inquiry into
possible government involvement in the killing of Congo’s Premier
Patrice Lumumba. This followed allegations in the new book "The
Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte. In 2001 the inquiry found that
King Baudouin knew of the plot but did nothing to stop it. The
Katanga government did not announce the death until Feb 13. Moscow
charged that UN Sec. Gen. Dag Hammarskjold was involved.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(PCh, 1992, p.979)(SFC,
5/17/97, p.A14)(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A1)
1961 Sep 13, Battles took place
between UN and Katanga troops in Congo.
1961 Sep 18, Dag Hammarskjold,
Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in
the Congo. Hammarskjold was the son of a former Swedish prime
minister. In 1953, he was elected to the top UN post and in 1957 was
reelected. During his second term, he initiated and directed the
United Nation's vigorous role in the Belgian Congo. Hammarskjold had
sent Conor O’Brien (1919-2008), an Irish diplomat, to the Congo
where a rebellion was openly being backed by Belgium and secretly by
Britain and France. O’Brien ordered in UN troops, but the mission
ended in disarray and the UN repudiated the mission. O’Brien
recounted his version of the events in his book “To Katanga and
9/18/97)(SSFC, 12/21/08, p.B6)
1961 Nov 11, Congolese soldiers
murdered 13 Italian UN pilots.
1963 Mobutu, chief of staff of
Congo’s army, visited the US White House as a guest of Pres.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)
1964 Oct 24, Belgian
paratroopers liberated 1,000 white hostages in Stanleyville
1964 Oct 27, Congo rebel leader
Christopher Gbenye held 60 Americans and 800 Belgians.
1965 Apr 24, Che Guevara, his
second-in-command Victor Dreke, and twelve of the Cuban
expeditionaries arrived in the Congo. Guevara, Cuba’s head of the
national bank and minister of industry, left Cuba to foment
revolution in the Congo. He spent most of 1965 and 1966 in Central
Africa, helping anti-Mobuto revolutionaries in the Republic of
Congo. This turned out to be a disaster and he went to Bolivia.
1965 Nov 24, Congo had a
military coup under Gen. Mobutu and Pres. Kasavubu was overthrown.
Larry Devlin, US CIA station chief, had encouraged Mobutu to launch
the coup. In 2007 Devlin authored “Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting
the Cold War in a Hot Zone."
1965 Laurent-Desiree Kabila,
Marxist revolutionary, fought with Ernesto "Che" Guevara on behalf
of Congo’s People’s Revolutionary Party.
(WSJ, 11/8/96, p.A10)
1965 In Zaire (later Congo)
Army Chief-of-Staff Mobutu Sese Seko, a member of the Gbandi tribe,
seized power in a military coup and began his dictatorship. His name
meant “the cock who goes from homestead to homestead leaving no hen
(SFC, 10/28/96, p.A8)(SFC, 12/18/96, p.C2)(SFEC,
4/6/97, p.A16)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.61)
1966 The Brazzaville Treaty
became effective after it was ratified by the five member countries:
Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo,
1967 Congo’s Pres. Mobutu
presided over the adoption of a new constitution that vested all
powers in the presidency and his political party.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)
1967 The Organization of
African Unity decided set up a regional nuclear research center in
Kinshasa, Congo, and the US helped build a Triga Mark II research
reactor made be General Atomic.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A4)
1968 Oct 9, Pierre Mulele,
Congolese rebel leader, was publicly tortured and executed in the
Congo [some sources give October 3].
1969 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo, a
member of Congo’s Mbuza tribe, became Mobutu’s chief body guard.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1971 Oct 27, The Democratic
Republic of Congo was renamed Zaire.
1972 Mar, In Zaire (CongoDRC)
the Trico II nuclear research reactor went on line.
1972 In Zaire (later Congo DRC)
Joseph-Desire Mobutu (1930-1997) changed his name to Mobutu Sese
Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga, which meant "the all-powerful warrior
who, because of his inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to
conquest leaving fire in his wake.
1972 Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko
passed a law granting Tutsis citizenship. He revoked it in 1981.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.39)
1974 Oct 30, Muhammad Ali and
George Foreman held their "Rumble In the Jungle" boxing match in
Zaire. Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a
15-round bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain his world heavyweight
title, that was taken from him for refusing military service.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.E3)(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A12)(AP,
1975 Nov 20, An interim report
by the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to
assassinate Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered
CIA activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and
1976 Sep, Scientists in Antwerp
received specimens from a fatally ill nun in Yambuku, Zaire (later
CongoDRC), and soon realized they were dealing with a deadly and
unknown virus. The Ebola virus was named after a river there. The
virus starts with flu-like symptoms but can stop blood from clotting
causing patients to bleed. An outbreak of the Ebola virus killed 280
people, most of whom were infected by reused syringes and needles.
It was later believed that fruit bats served as a host for the
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.A5)(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A6)(Econ,
7/26/14, p.36)(Econ, 10/18/14, p.11)
1977 Jan 10, The crater walls
of Congo’s Nyiragongo volcano fractured, and a lava lake drained in
less than an hour. The lava flowed down the flanks of the volcano at
speeds of up to 60 miles per hour on the upper slopes, overwhelming
villages and killing at least 70 people.
1977 Rebel forces from Angola
swept into Zaire and captured much of the copper-rich Shaba
province. Zaire regained control after 3 months with American and
other foreign support.
(SFC, 11/11/96, p.A11)(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)
1978 In Zaire another coup
attempt was begun in the Shaba province. American and other foreign
support helped Mobutu maintain control.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)
1978 In Zaire (later Congo)
there was a separatist uprising in the southern Katanga province and
at least 140 foreigners were massacred at the Kolwezi copper mine.
Hundreds of Katangans also died.
(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A1)
1980 May 2, Pope John Paul II
arrived Kinshasa for the centennial of Catholicism in Zaire and the
beginning of his African tour.
1980 May 4, Nine people were
killed at Kinshasa, Zaire (later the Democratic Republic of Congo)
during a stampede to attend mass given by Pope John Paul II.
1980-1989 During the 1980s Congo’s Mobutu Sese
Seko imported 5,000 sheep from Venezuela for one his ranches by
using a government owned DC-8 to make 32 round trips between Caracas
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/2kg3bl)
1981 Zairean citizenship was
withdrawn from the Banyamulenge Tutsis of eastern Zaire.
(WSJ, 11/8/96, p.A10)
1985 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo
fought back Congo’s Laurent Kabila, who had set up a rebel republic
on the shores of Lake Tanganyika near Moba. The rebels under Kabila
were mainly Tutsis and used militaristic and autocratic methods.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A14)
1989 Jan 12, Idi Amin was
expelled from Zaire (later CongoDRC) and forced to return to Saudi
1990 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo led
Zairean soldiers to back up the Hutu regime of Pres. Juvenal
Habyarimana of Rwanda.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1991 Etienne Tshisekedi was
installed as Congo’s prime minister after Mobutu was forced by
foreign and domestic pressure to allow multiparty politics and
accept a government formed by the opposition.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A16)
1991 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo
became chief of staff of Congo’s armed forces.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1991 Kabangu Kalunga, an
intelligence office under Congo’s Mobutu, was sent to fight
Tutsi-led rebels in Rwanda.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.C2)
1991 Riots by Congo’s unpaid
soldiers killed hundreds of people and destroyed many businesses.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A4)
1991 Thomas Kanza, head of a
coffee trading operation, was convicted in Tennessee of fraud. The
operation had $57,000 of investor’s money missing. In 1997 he was
selected by Laurent Kabila as Congo’s first minister of int’l.
(WSJ, 2/9/98, p.A1)
1993 Congo’s Pres. Mobutu
removed Etienne Tshisekedi, the first Zairean to graduate from law
school, from office as prime minister.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A19)
1993 In Congo Mahele Lieko
Bokoungo put down army-led looting in Kinshasa when he gave orders
for loyal troops to fire on looters.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1993 In Congo riots killed
hundreds of people and destroyed many businesses.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A10)
1994 Apr-1994 Aug, The Rwanda
Patriotic Front (RPF) under Paul Kagame killed some 25-45,000 people
during this period. They then pursued the genocidaires into Zaire
where they killed some 200,000 more and in the process overthrew the
government of Zaire.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.26)
1994 Apr-1994 Aug, Hutus
slaughtered more than 500,000 people, mostly Tutsis, in Rwanda and
fled to refugee camps in Zaire.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.B1)
1994 Jul 14, A tidal wave of
Hutu refugees from Rwanda's civil war flooded across the border into
Zaire, swamping relief organizations.
1994 Jul 17, Hutus left Rwanda
for refugee camps in Zaire.
(SFEC, 11/19/96, p.A16)
1994 Jul 18, In Rwanda the
Tutsi rebel movement (RPF) under Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame took
power. It promised to rebuild the courts and execute the guilty for
the slaughter of an estimated 500-800 thousand Tutsis. Two million
refugees, mostly Hutus, fled to refugee camps in Zaire and Tanzania.
Kagame studied at the US Army Command and General Staff College at
Fort Leavenworth in 1990. In 2005 Jean Hatzfeld, French journalist,
authored “Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak."
(SFC, 417/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 8/9/96, p.A10)(SFC,
10/22/96, p.B1)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(AP, 7/18/99)(SSFC, 6/26/05,
1994 Rene Ngongo of Congo DRC
founded the OCEAN environmental group, exposing the impact of
deforestation and monitoring the plunder of minerals by warring
factions during Congo's 1996-2002 civil wars.
1995 Apr, The parliament passed
a resolution that prevented refugees from Rwanda and Burundi from
obtaining Zairean citizenship.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)
1995 May 9, Kinshasa, capital
of Zaire, was placed under quarantine after an outbreak of the Ebola
1995 Jul, The Ebola virus
killed 244 people in Kikwit, Zaire.
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A11)
1995 Sep, In Congo government
harassment of the Banyamulenge Tutsis began with an inventory of
property, evictions and expulsions.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)
1995 Nov, Congo’s government
told Jimmy Carter (visiting prior to a Cairo summit) that it may
relax its end of year deadline for one million Rwandan refugees to
leave or be thrown out.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1)
1995 Nov, Zairean Tutsis in
Masis were targeted by authorities, the army and the locals. They
were forced to flee and many were massacred.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)
1995 Dec, 26 At least 50 people
were killed in Goma, Congo, in rioting between two army units
guarding Rwandan refugees. Many civilians were killed.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p.A-1)
1996 Jan 8, A Russian-made
Antonov-32 skidded into a crowded marketplace shortly after take-off
in Kinshasa in Zaire and killed at least 350 people. The
twin-turboprop was owned by African Air and was overweight when it
took off. At least 470 people were injured.
(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-1) (SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-14)(WSJ,
1996 May 17, Hutu gunmen
attacked 800 Zairian Tutsis who had taken refuge in a church. They
killed at least 12 and left 130 missing. Hutu refugees from Rwanda
have been conducting a campaign to drive out other ethnic groups in
1996 May 29, Hundreds of Tutsis
crossed into Rwanda fleeing the fighting in Zaire. Thousands of
displaced Tutsis are behind them in the Masisi and Rutshuru regions
of northeastern Zaire.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A9)
1996 Sep 4, In the Congo
authorities found 200 slaughtered elephants in a marsh of the
National Park of Odzala.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 7, Ethnic Tutsi rebels
slaughtered 34 patients in eastern Zaire. The government has given
the 200,000 Tutsis a week to leave Zaire. The Tutsi Banyamulenge
arrived into Zaire some 200 years ago.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A14)(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A11)
1996 Oct 10, Armed men killed
50-60 civilians in eastern Zaire in the village of Bambu in the
Masisi region. The Banyamulenge immigrated to eastern Zaire from
Rwanda decades ago.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A11)
1996 Oct 18, Fighting erupted
between Zairean soldiers and the rebel alliance under Kabila.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1996 Oct 20, Some 300 Congolese
Hutu peasants were bludgeoned to death by Rwandan troops in
Musekera. Details were not made public until 2010 by the local
Observation Center for Human Rights and Social Assistance.
1996 Oct 21, About 225,000 Hutu
refugees fled camps in eastern Zaire. The governor of the area has
given the 300,000 Banyamulenge Tutsis as week to leave. Zaire has
camps holding about 1.5 million Hutu refugees, most of them from
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.B1)
1996 Oct 25, The UN announced
an emergency food airlift to eastern Zaire to help 300,000 Hutu
refugees fleeing violence.
(SFC, 10/26/96, p.A8)
1996 Oct 28, In Congo some
420,000 refugees were crowded into the Mugunga Camp as fighting
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.A6)
1996 Oct 30, Rwandan commandos
crossed into eastern Zaire to aid the Tutsi rebels there. Zaire had
about 50,000 troops, but they were poorly trained, poorly armed,
poorly led and notoriously poorly disciplined. Rwanda had about
54,000 soldiers in a well-disciplined army.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 30, The Vatican said
eastern Zaire’s Archbishop was killed, the 2nd in 2 months.
(WSJ, 10/31/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 1, Tutsi rebels and
Rwandan forces besieged Goma, Congo, in a battle for control of the
regional capital and its airport. In Kinshasha some 10,000
university students demanded war with Rwanda and Burundi.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.A8)
1996 Nov 5, Zairians in
Kinshasa defied a ban on demonstrations and called for the
government to resign.
(WSJ, 11/6/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 7, Laurent-Desiree
Kabila, Marxist revolutionary, re-emerged as the "coordinator" of
the Alliance of Democratic Forces of Congo-Zaire (AFDL).
(WSJ, 11/8/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 8, Congo’s Pres.
Mobutu Sese Seko was recuperating from prostate cancer surgery at
the Villa del Mare on the French Mediterranean. Recent Swiss reports
put his holdings in Swiss banks at $4 billion.
(SFC, 11/9/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov 14, Armed men
surrounded the Mugunga refugee camp in eastern Zaire and began
shooting indiscriminately at its inhabitants as they huddled for
safety or tried to flee. Hundreds of men, women and children died
over a three-day period, according to eyewitnesses and forensic
evidence later gathered from mass graves.
1996 Nov 18, Rwandan troops
descended on the Chimanga refugee camp in eastern Zaire (later
CongoDRC) and opened fire killing some 500 refugees.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.51)(http://tinyurl.com/29j5mmv)
1996 Nov 21, The Banyarwanda
means "people of Rwanda" and includes the Banyamylenge and anyone
else in eastern Zaire whose origins were in Rwanda. The Bangilima
and the Mai-Mai are Zairean militias with a strong background in
witchcraft. The Interahamwe are former Rwandan Hutu militiamen who
played a role in the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C6)
1996 Nov 21, Congo’s operating
budget for this year was $350 million and the population was 45 mil.
(WSJ, 11/21/96, p.A19)
1996 Nov 29, A Canadian-led
int’l. force won approval to provide humanitarian aid. The force
would be based in Uganda.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov 30, In Zaire a volcano
erupted near the Rwanda-Uganda border.
(SFC, 12/2/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 4, In Zaire government
troops went on a rampage of looting and raping in Kinsangani. Rebels
announced the capture of Kindu 250 miles south of Kinsangani.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 8, Rebels surrounded
Bunia, the last government held town in eastern Zaire. Government
troops were looting and targeting Greek merchants and members of the
Nande ethnic group.
(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)
1996 Dec 17, In Zaire Mobutu
Sese Seko stage a triumphal home.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 19, In Zaire Gen’l.
Mahele Lieko Bokoungo was appointed the new army chief.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1996 Dec 23, In Zaire a crises
government was established under Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo.
Gen’l. Likulia Bolongop was named the new defense minister.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec-1996 Jan, Hundreds of
Hutu refugees were killed by rebels as they headed back home on the
road from Hombo to Walikale.
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A12)
1996 Rwanda’s Paul Kagame
dressed up an invasion of Zaire as an indigenous revolt and
installed Laurent Kabila at its helm. Zimbabwe paid $5 million to
help finance the Kabila regime in Congo.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A1)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.38)
1997 Jan 2, In Zaire rebel
troops captured Pres. Seko’s 32,000 sq. mile Kilomoto gold mining
region and the town of Mangbwalu.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A18)
1997 Jan 6, In Zaire at least
100 lawmakers quit Pres. Seko’s parliamentary alliance to join a new
nationalist group. Their goal appeared to be to topple Prime
Minister Kengo wa Dondo.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A9)
1997 Jan 9, Zaire’s Pres. Seko
returned to France, apparently for cancer treatments.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A15)
1997 Jan 24, A Zairean
counteroffensive was supported by some 300 foreign mercenaries.
About 400,000 Hutu refugees were trapped near regions of fighting
and UN officials raised pleas for a truce to allow the refugees to
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A8)
1997 Feb 15, In Zaire Rwandan
soldiers killed about 200 refugees near the town of Kigulube.
1997 Feb 18, The UN endorsed a
5-point peace plan for Zaire.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A10)
1997 Mar 14, In Zaire after a 3
week siege of Kisangani, rebels attacked the city, the 3rd largest
in the country.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)
1997 Mar 15, In Zaire rebel
soldiers occupied Kisangani.
(SFC, 3/17/97, p.A8)
1997 Mar 21, Zaire’s Pres.
Mobutu returned to Kinshasa.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A19)
1997 Mar 24, In Zaire Mobutu
accepted the parliamentary vote of censure of prime minister Kengo
(SFC, 3/25/97, p.A12)
1997 Apr 1, In Zaire Etienne
Tshisekedi was appointed prime minister. The next day he annulled
the constitution, dissolved parliament and offered 6 Cabinet seats
to the rebels. He planned a new transitional parliament and new
(SFC, 4/4/97, p.A16)
1997 Apr 4, Rebel forces
captured Mbuji-Mayi, capital of Eastern Kasai province and home of
Zaire’s diamond industry. Departing government troops looted the
city and 100 people were killed in clashes between the retreating
soldiers and locals.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A8)
1997 Apr 5, In Zaire rebels
agreed to allow a UN airlift of some 80,000 Rwandan refugees back to
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A17)
1997 Apr 7, Deserting
government soldiers of Zaire’s 21st Brigade donned white scarves and
declared themselves on the side of the rebels as the rebels
approached Lubumbashi, the capital of the copper and cobalt rich
(SFC, 4/8/97, p.A8)
1997 Apr 9, In Zaire Mobuto
dismissed prime minister Etienne Tshisekedo and installed a military
commander as prime minister.
(SFC, 4/10/97, p.A1)
1997 Apr 24, In Zaire rebels
were accused of having killed many refugees and burying them in a
mass grave. Large amounts of airlift supplies intended to return
Rwandan refugees were seized by rebels.
(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A12)
1997 Apr 25, Zaire’s government
claimed that Angolan troops had invaded near Cabinda. Angola was
supporting Kabila’s rebels.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A10)
1997 May 2, The Tenke Mining
Corp. of Vancouver, Canada, signed a $250 million contract with the
Zaire’s rebels to develop copper and cobalt deposits.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 4, More than 100
Rwandan refugees died on an overcrowded train after rebel troops
packed them aboard for delivery to an airstrip for flights to
Rwanda. Peace talks onboard the South African naval vessel Outeniqua
between Zaire’s Pres. Mobutu and Laurent Kabila failed to produce
(WSJ, 5/5/97, p.A1)
1997 May 5, The rebels
nationalized the Sizarail rail system, a consortium that belonged to
South African, Belgian and Zairean interests.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A18)
1997 May 6, Pres. Mobutu Sese
Seko left Zaire for a 3-day visit to Gabon. He was not expected to
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)
1997 May 8, In Zaire rebels
were meeting increased resistance from French mercenaries and
Angolan UNITA forces. A shortage of cash was also hindering their
advance on Kinshasa.
(WSJ, 5/9/97, p.A1)
1997 May 10, In Zaire Pres.
Mobutu returned to Kinshasa from Gabon.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.A7)
1997 May 13, In Zaire rebel
troops reached Wendji and Mbandaka and proceeded to kill Hutu
refugees. Estimates of deaths varied from 550-2000.
(WSJ, 6/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A11)
1997 May 15, In mid May
Kabila’s soldiers were reported to have killed as many as 275 people
in Uvira on Lake Tanganyika.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A14)
1997 May 16, Pres. Mobutu left
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A1)
1997 May 17, In Zaire rebel
forces entered Kinshasa and Laurent Kabila declared himself
president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila requested
Swiss authorities to block Mobuto Sese Seko’s access to his Swiss
villa. The house was seized and searched and documents were found
that related to his wealth. The seizure was declared legal Aug 7.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)(AP,
1997 May 29, In Congo Kabila
took a presidential oath of office and presented a timeline for
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 26, In Congo soldiers
seized Etienne Tshisekedi after he gave a speech accusing the Kabila
regime of establishing a new dictatorship.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 27, In Congo Etienne
Tshisekedi was released.
(WSJ, 6/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 25, In Congo soldiers
fired into a crowd of protestors in Kinshasa and killed at least 3
people. The protest was against Kabila’s ban on political activity.
(SFC, 7/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Aug 7, In Switzerland the
measures to freeze the assets of deposed Zairean Pres. Mobuto Sese
Seko were declared legal.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.E3)
1997 Aug 14, Congo
announced a $2.5 billion project to build roads and that it
would seek EU financing.
(WSJ, 8/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 7, Mobuto Sese Seko
(66), former dictator of Zaire, later Congo, died of prostate cancer
in exile in Rabat, Morocco. Mobutu began his career in the Belgian
Congolese army, rising to the highest rank available to Africans,
sergeant-major. However, after leaving the army in 1956, he began to
be involved with the independence movement, representing the
nationalists at some negotiations. Five years after independence, in
1965, Mobutu, then commander in chief of the army, exploited a power
struggle in the young government by assuming the presidency in a
coup. Mobutu managed to stay in power over the following decades
despite uprisings, coup attempts and Angola-backed rebels. In the
early 1970s, he began to Africanize names in the country, most
notably changing the name of the country from the Democratic
Republic of the Congo to the Republic of Zaire and his own name from
Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga
(which means "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance
and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest,
leaving fire in his wake"). The end of the Cold War meant that, in
1991, Mobutu could no longer hold the same dictatorial control he
had held over the country nor keep his party, the MPR, as the only
legal political entity. With the beginnings of a multiparty system
and a lack of Western finance, Mobutu released control of the
government to the rebel leader Laurent Kabila in May 1997. Kabila‘s
rebels—backed by Rwanda and Uganda—had been gaining ground over the
past seven months. Mobutu died in exile several months later. In
2001 Michela Wrong authored ""In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living
on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo."
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)(AP, 9/7/98)(HNQ,
2/15/01)(WSJ, 4/27/01, p.W10)
1997 Sep 12, In southeast Congo
a plane crashed enroute to a religious meeting. All 20 aboard were
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A24)
1997 Oct 1, The UN withdrew its
human rights investigators from Congo pending a clarification by the
Kabila government on its policy.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 1, Pres. Kabila
ordered troops into the Congo Republic after 2 days of cross border
shelling that killed as many as 31 in Kinshasa.
(WSJ, 10/2/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 3, UN officials
reported that Congo has ordered int’l. refugee agencies to leave
part of eastern Congo and was expelling Rwandans who have fled there
to escape fighting in Rwanda.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 25, Congo’s Pres.
Kabila and the US ambassador to the UN announced an agreement for a
UN investigation into alleged massacres by Kabila’s army.
1997 Nov 25, It was reported
that police in Congo flogged 10 journalists for attending a news
conference by politician Z’Ahidi Arthur Ngoma. Ngoma and five
supporters were arrested after the conference.
1997 Nov 28, In Congo rival
factions of the army clashed and up to 20 people were killed in
Kinshasa at the offices of Pres. Kabila.
(SFC, 11/29/97, p.A14)
1997 Nov 30, In the Congo the
government accused foreign broadcaster of tarnishing its image and
shut down all local FM transmissions of international radio
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)
1997 In Congo Laurent Kabila
appointed his son, Joseph Kabila, as head of the army.
(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A14)
1998 Jan 20, Joseph Olengankoy,
Congo opposition leader, was arrested. He had refused to meet with
Pres. Kabila to discuss his criticism.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1998 Feb 20, In Congo troops of
Pres. Kabila were sent to quell a rebellion by Mai-Mai tribal
warriors. A human rights group, Azadho, later charged the troops in
a massacre of over 300 civilians in Butembo.
(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr, The Congo government
banned the African Association for Defense of Human Rights.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B7)
1998 May 11, A new study was
reported that James Kabari, Pres. Kabila’s chief of staff,
supervised a special Rwandan military unit that killed 2,000 Hutus
in 1997 in the Congolese town of Mbandaka with Kabila’s knowledge.
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.A8)
1998 May 19, A Congo military
court sentenced Masasu Nindanga and Joseph Olenghankoy, opponents of
Pres. Kabila, to jail terms of 20 and 15 years with no right of
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.C2)
1998 Jul 1, Etienne Tshisekedi,
Congo opposition leader, was freed from internal exile and returned
to the capital.
(SFC, 7/2/98, p.C2)
1998 Aug 3, In Congo rebellious
troops seized control of several cities. Sylvain Mbuchi, claimed to
be the rebel leader and announced that the military had decided to
remove Kabila from power. Kabila last week ordered Rwandan Tutsi
troops to leave Congo.
(SFC, 8/4/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 5, In Congo Arthur
Z’Ahidy [Zaidy] Ngoma, a Kinshasa politician, was identified as the
leader of the rebels opposed to Kabila.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 6, Rebels in Congo
seized control of Moanda, an important oil depot.
(SFC, 8/7/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 7, Congo’s Pres.
Kabila left Kinshasa for Lubumbashi, his former rebel base, to meet
with a visiting South African delegation.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Aug 10, Congo claimed to
have recaptured the Atlantic ports near the mouth of the Congo River
that were taken by Tutsi rebels.
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 12, Rwanda protested a
Congo crackdown on ethnic Tutsis and charged that Kabila was arming
Rwandan Hutus to put down a Tutsi-led revolt along the border.
(WSJ, 8/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 13, In Congo rebels
seized the Inga hydroelectric dam and cut off power to Kinshasa.
Kabila fired his army chief in response.
(WSJ, 8/14/98, p.A1)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 14, In Congo Bizima
Karaha, a minister who had defected to the rebels, said that the
port of Matadi was captured. A rebel army was marching toward
Kinshasa from the western coastline.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 15, In Congo the US
Embassy shut its doors as rebels approached Kinshasa. Pres. Kabila
and his ministers retired to Lubumbashi.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 16, Pres. Kabila flew
to Angola to meet with Pres. dos Santos and request direct support
against rebels. Air cargo support was being provided as well as
several thousand Congolese exiles known as the Katangese Gendarmes.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 21, Zimbabwe sent 600
troops to support Pres. Kabila in the Congo. Rwanda called for a
cease fire and warned that it would intervene if the troops from
Zimbabwe were not withdrawn.
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 23, In Congo rebels
appeared to have seized Kisangani while government soldiers
recaptured Kitona, a military base near the coast. Troops from
Zimbabwe fought rebels advancing on Kinshasa. The capture of
Kisangani effectively splitting Congo and cut off commerce with
government-held territory and Kinshasa, the capital 900 miles
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A1)(AP,
1998 Aug 24, Some 2,000 Angolan
troops captured a coastal naval base and oil port and moved up the
Congo River to battle the rebels.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 25, Pres. Kabila
declared that this day all Congolese should "take up arms, even
traditional weapons -bows and arrows, spears and other things... to
crush the enemy because otherwise we are going to become the slaves
of these...Tutsi people."
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B7)
1998 Aug 26, In Congo
Rwandan-backed rebels attempted an assault on Kinshasa but were held
off by government soldiers and troops from Zimbabwe and Namibia.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 27, In Congo Unita
forces from Angola joined the rebels, while forces from Namibia
fought for Kabila’s regime.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 31, Congo’s Kabila
declared victory over the Tutsi-led rebels near Kinshasa and in the
(WSJ, 9/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 7, A summit in
Zimbabwe was scheduled to create conditions for a cease-fire in
Congo. A half dozen nations gathered to fashion a draft initiative
(SFEC, 9/6/98, p.A11)(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A8)
1998 Sep 8, The Congo rebel
delegation stormed out of the peace talks in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 15, In Congo Pres.
Kabila restored four generals from late dictator Mobutu’s regime.
Government forces were said to be moving on Goma.
(WSJ, 9/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 5, In Congo rebels
under Arthur Mulunda said they were within 12 miles of Kindu. The
rebels were backed by troops and equipment from Rwanda and Uganda.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 6, Rebel commander
Richard Mondo told reporters that artillery rounds had been fired
into Kindu and that advance units had crossed the Lualaba River. At
least 18 government soldiers were reported killed.
(SFC, 10/7/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 10, In Congo Tutsi
rebels shot down a Boeing 727 Lignes Aeriennes Congolaises airliner
following takeoff from Kindu. Airline officials said there were 38
passengers, mostly women and children. Rebels claimed the passengers
were soldiers. 41 people were killed.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A15)(AP, 6/11/13)
1998 Oct 11, Kindu, Congo, fell
to the rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Oct 14, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Robert Mugabe that he will meet with Kabila to discuss support
against the rebels in Congo.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported
that Bobi Ladawa Mobutu, wife of Mobutu Sese Seko, and son, Nazanga,
had established a Mobutu Family Foundation to carry out charitable
programs in the US and Africa for young Africans. The former
dictator was believed to have taken $10 billion from the Congo.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 19, In Congo 16
Zimbabwean soldiers were captured by the rebels.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)
1998 Oct 31, It was reported
that a lightning bolt killed all 11 members of a Congolese soccer
team in eastern Kasai province.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct, Congo’s new
constitution was scheduled to be completed.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A15)
1998 Nov 3, In Congo troops
opened fire at a soccer match in Kinshasa and 4 people were killed.
(WSJ, 11/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 16, In Congo rebels
said that they captured the port of Moba on Lake Tanganyika. UN
officials said that over 65,000 people had been displaced since Aug
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.B3)
1998 Nov 20, It was reported
that Kabila was signing away large stakes in Congo’s biggest
enterprises to businessmen from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia in
return for support against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 23, Congo reported
that warplanes of its Zimbabwe allies bombed and sank 6 boatloads of
rebels on lake Tanganyika killing hundreds.
(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 28, Countries fighting
in Congo agreed to a cease-fire during an African summit in Paris.
The deal was brokered by UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan. Rebel leaders
were not present.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 4, The former governor
of Bas-Congo province, Fuko Unzola, was sentenced to 15 years in
jail for treason, i.e. collaborating with Tutsi-led rebels.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 7, Congolese rebels
dismissed the tentative truce worked out in Paris by UN Sec. Gen’l.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 15, Congo rebels
claimed to have killed 47 Zimbabwean troops fighting for Kabila at
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 17-1998 Dec 18, A
Congo cease-fire was to be signed before a meeting of the
Organization of African Unity.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec, A referendum on
Congo’s new constitution was scheduled.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A16)
1998 The Lusaka Treaty failed
to resolve squabbles and ended with a resumption of war in Congo.
(WSJ, 5/31/00, p.A26)
1998 Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
chairman of the African body “Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security," joined with Namibia and Angola in a war of plunder in
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.48)
1998 Dec 30-1999 Jan 1, Some
500 people were massacred in eastern Congo during the 3 day New Year
holiday. The killings were by soldiers aligned with rebels led by
Tutsi, but the victims were not Hutu.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1998-2004 Congo strife over this period killed 3.8
million people, half of them children, mostly due to disease and
(WSJ, 12/10/04, p.A1)
1999 Jan 1, Congo rebels
massacred at least 500 civilians over the last 3 days. Six Red Cross
workers were among the dead.
(WSJ, 1/6/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 6, Congo rebel leader
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba said his forces killed about 400 Burundi Hutu
rebels fighting with the Congolese government troops and promised to
investigate the alleged New Year murder of 500 civilians.
(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 22, In eastern Congo
government and rebel authorities accepted UN care for hundreds of
thousands displaced by war.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.A11)
1999 Jan-1999 Jul, In Congo
soldier’s under Pres. Kabila fled advancing rebel troops and killed
numerous inhabitants in their path in the Equateur region. An
estimated 300-900 people were killed and graves began to be
uncovered in 2000.
(SFC, 4/15/00, p.A15)
1999 Mar 3, The Ugandan army
killed 15 of the Rwanda Hutu rebels who butchered 8 foreign tourists
Mar 1. Another 100 rebels escaped into the bush inside the Republic
of the Congo.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 4, Congo rebels who
served under Mobutu Sese Seko took the town of Bolobo, upstream from
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 14, In southeastern
Congo rebels reportedly killed over 100 villagers in retaliation for
an attack by pro-government militia. Moise Nyarugabo, head of the
rebel Congolese Democratic Coalition said his forces killed at least
150 Zimbabwean soldiers allied to Kabila at Kabinda. Zimbabwe denied
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
1999 Mar 22, In Congo Mai Mai
warriors hired by Rwanda were reported to have killed 100 people.
Rwanda denied the report.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 24, In Congo a
massacre of 250 people in the Kivu region was reported. The slayings
by Rwandan troops appeared to be in retaliation for earlier attacks
by Congolese Mai Mai tribesmen.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 18, Pres. Kabila and
Ugandan Pres. Museweni signed a cease-fire agreement that was
mediated by Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy. Rwanda and Congolese
rebels rejected the deal.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A11)
1999 Apr 19, Kabila in 1997 set
this date for presidential and legislative elections.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A15)
1999 Apr 28, In eastern Congo
Gov. Kanyamuhanga Gafunzi ordered 100,000 Rwandan refugees in Kivu
province to go home within 15 days for supporting Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D8)
1999 May 5, It was reported
that over 63 people had died from an unknown disease that appeared
to be a type of hemorrhagic fever. Most of the dead were gold miners
and died within 6 days of becoming ill. The disease was caused by
the Marburg virus.
(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A11)(SFC, 5/7/99, p.D2)
1999 May 11, In Congo a
government plane bombed rebel strongholds at Goma and Uvira and at
least 28 people were killed according to Gen'l. Celestin Ilunga.
(SFC, 5/12/99, p.C10)
1999 May 17, Ernest Wamba dia
Wamba was ousted as the rebel leader of the Congolese Democratic
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.C12)(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A8)
1999 May 19, In Congo the rebel
Congolese Democratic Coalition named Emile Ilunga as their new
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A13)
1999 May 28, Rwanda declared a
unilateral cease-fire in Congo where it was backing rebels to oust
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A11)
1999 Jun, Ernest Wamba dia
Wamba, head of the Rally for Congolese Democracy, moved his
headquarters from Kisangani to Bunia. He declared a new province
called Kibali-Ituri and appointed a Hema tribesperson as governor.
This ignited a new round of fighting between the cattle-raising Hema
and agrarian Lendu tribes.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A13)
1999 Jul 1, In Congo fighting
intensified as rebels advanced on key diamond areas near Kabinda and
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A18)
1999 Jul 2, The Congo
government and rebel officials said they had reached an accord to
end the 11-month war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rebel
forces were to be merged with the government army.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 4, In Congo Abdulaiye
Yerodia, the foreign minister, objected to the inclusion of foreign
rebels in a joint military commission to verify terms of a
cease-fire. Meanwhile The Congolese Liberation Movement, led by
Jena-Pierre Bemba, took Gbadolite, 750 miles northeast of Kinshasa.
(SFC, 7/5/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 10, In Zambia 5
nations involved in the Congo civil war signed a peace accord.
(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A12)
1999 Jul 11, In Congo rebels
dismissed the peace agreement signed by 6 countries involved in the
war and said the war would continue and get worse.
(SFC, 7/12/99, p.A9)
1999 Aug 1, In Zambia
Jean-Pierre Bemba, head of the Congo Liberation Movement, signed the
cease-fire accord that representatives of 5 nations involved had
signed on July 10. The Congolese Rally for Democracy faction still
contested leadership between Ernest Wamba dia Wamba and Emile
(SFC, 8/2/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 4, In Congo at least
518 people, mostly civilians, were killed when Sudanese planes, at
the request of Congo's government, bombed the rebel-held towns of
Makanza and Bogbonga. Sudan denied the charges and Congolese Pres.
Kabila denied responsibility.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A12)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 11, In Congo warring
sides agreed to stop fighting until Aug 20 to allow the UN to
vaccinate 10 million children against polio.
(WSJ, 8/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 15, Fighting in
Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville) extended from the airport to the
city center between forces from Uganda and Rwanda. Rebel leader
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba was backed by Uganda, while Emile Ilunga was
backed by Rwanda.
(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 17, Rwanda and Uganda
agreed to an immediate truce to 4 days of fighting in Kisangani,
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 24, Congo rebel
leaders agreed to sign a peace accord.
(WSJ, 8/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 31, Congolese rebels
signed a cease-fire in Zambia.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A16)
1999 Oct 7, Rwanda reported
that army troops and Congolese allies had killed over 200 Rwandan
Hutu rebels over a weeklong operation along the border where 4,000
Hutu rebels had been based.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 8, In Congo Pres.
Kabila ordered foreign businessmen to put down a $500,000 guarantee
by Dec. 21 or leave the country. The order came less than a week
after he ordered a crackdown on Congo's illegal foreign exchange
market, the shutdown of the main commercial district and the arrest
of currency traders.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 22, The Italian
missionary news agency MISNA reported that the bodies of 61
civilians were reported found near the Congo village of Kashambi.
(SFC, 10/23/99, p.A11)
1999 Nov 8, It was reported
that 2 Congo rebel leaders were resuming their war on Kabila.
(WSJ, 11/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Nov 9, Government forces
bombed Nkembe. Rebel spokesman Kien-Kiey Mulumba said he would no
longer honor the peace accord after the government killed 100
civilians in 4 days of fighting.
(SFC, 11/10/99, p.A14)(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D2)
1999 Nov 23, In Congo Mayi-Mayi
tribal fighters, armed mostly with bows and arrows, attacked Ugandan
soldiers near Butembo and some 200 fighters were killed including
about 100 Mayi-Mayi.
(SFC, 11/25/99, p.D6)
1999 Dec 2, Congo rebels
besieged a large contingent of Zimbabwean troops allied with Kabila
and captured a Russian-built transport plane and 120 prisoners.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 2, Congolese rebels
lost Bokungu as Zimbabwean soldiers broke through to save surrounded
comrades at Ikela airport.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 31, In Congo
Jean-Pierre Bemba said his Congolese Liberation Movement forces had
ambushed and killed 80 government troops at Libanda.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.D4)
1999 Edward Hooper authored
"The River," a detailed hypothesis for the origin of AIDS in Africa.
He suspected that the Wister polio vaccine, which was given to some
300,000 people in the Belgian Congo between 1957-1960, was produced
from monkey kidney cells that contained SIV virus.
1999 A local dispute between
Hema and Lendu tribes people began over a farm in Djugu. The
disputes broadened and led to substantial killings.
(SFC, 1/29/01, p.A14)
1999 A UN peacekeeping force
(MONUC) was deployed to Congo, but failed to keep anyone safe. In
2004 the UN Security Council ordered an expansion of forces from
10,000 to 16,000.
(Econ, 12/4/04, p.45)
2000 Jan 24, Pres. Kabila met
with other African presidents at the UN to end the Congo civil war.
Kabila demanded that the UN deploy a peace-keeping force to monitor
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 9, It was reported
that video footage was smuggled out to Kenya from the Ituri district
of Congo by the Christoffel Blinden Mission, a Christian charity for
the blind. It depicted the escalating tribal slaughter in the area.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 24, The UN Security
Council approved a proposal to send as many as 5,537 observers and
peace-keeping troops to the Congo.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A16)
2000 Apr 14, In Congo several
explosions took place at the airport in Kinshasa and a number of
people were killed. State radio reported that a short circuit
sparked a fire that triggered explosions at an army munitions depot
and that a fire spread to a fuel depot. The death toll reached 101
and 216 seriously injured.
(SFC, 4/15/00, p.A13)(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A21)(SFC,
2000 Apr 19, In southern Congo
6 Rwandan army officers and 4 Russian crew members were killed when
their Antonov-8 aircraft crashed on takeoff at Pepa.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 4/21/00, p.A1)
2000 May 4, Congo agreed to
cooperate with UN plans for a 5,500 member observer force to monitor
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A18)
2000 May 5, In Congo Ugandan
and Rwandan troops clashed at Kisangani and at least 10 civilians
were killed and 100 wounded.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 7, Pres. Kagami
announced that Rwanda was prepared to quickly implement a phased
withdrawal from Congo.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A12)
2000 May 8, In Congo the city
of Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville) was declared a neutral zone as
Rwanda and Uganda agreed to withdraw their troops from the area and
allow UN forces to take over.
(SFC, 5/9/00, p.A12)
2000 May 16, In Congo an
immediate pullout from Kisangani of forces from Rwanda and Uganda
was agreed to in a bid to avert a wider war.
(WSJ, 5/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 7, In Congo troops
from Uganda and Rwanda fought an artillery duel in Kisangani that
set the city’s cathedral on fire.
(WSJ, 6/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 9, The 22-month civil
war averaged some 2,600 deaths every day. The total was estimated at
1.7 million dead.
(SFC, 6/9/00, p.A20)
2000 Jun 11, In Congo Rwandan
troops drove Ugandan forces from Kisangani to end a week of
(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 10, Rebels fought
government troops near Dongo. Jean-Pierre Bemba, head of the Ugandan
backed Congolese Liberation Movement, said his rebels had killed
some 800 government soldiers on riverboats using missiles.
(SFC, 8/12/00, p.A11)
2000 Aug 12, In Congo a
Russian-made Antonov crashed on approach to Tshikapa and 27 people
(WSJ, 8/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 9, Rebels captured
Dongo and forced the retreat of government troops toward Imese.
Scores were killed in a 36-hour battle.
(SFC, 9/11/00, p.13)
2000 Sep 11, In Congo rebels
and Ugandan troops killed at least 30 pro-Kabila Mai-Mai fighters at
Butembo in the Masisi region.
(SFC, 9/13/00, p.A14)
2000 Nov 5, In Congo at least
20 people were killed in Bunia, before Uganda sent in tanks and
troops to protect Ernest Wamba dia Wamba in a dispute with Mbusa
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B4)
2000 Dec 4, In southern Congo
over 10,000 refugees were driven into northern Zambia due to renewed
fighting over the last 12 days.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A16)
2000 In CongoDRC Lyn Lusi
(d.2012), British born administrator, and her Congolese husband set
up a hospital in Goma to train Congolese doctors. It was destroyed
by a volcano in 2002. They rebuilt it and named it HEAL Africa.
2000 Asylum seekers fled to the
Republic of Congo when the rebel Movement for the Liberation of
Congo under Jean-Pierre Bemba overtook the Equateur province.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.E1)
2000 The Democratic Forces for
the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) was formed after the Kinshasa-based
Hutu command and the Kivu-based Army for the Liberation of Rwanda
(ALiR) agreed to merge.
2000 It was estimated that
Rwanda made $20 million per month mining coltan in Congo DRC. The
mineral is used in the manufacture of capacitors for electronic
2001 Jan 16, In Congo Pres.
Kabila was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, Rashidi Kasereka,
who was immediately killed. In 2003 a military court sentenced 26
people to death for the assassination.
(SFC, 1/17/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/24/01, p.A12)(SFC,
2001 Jan 17, In Congo
government ministers named Joseph Kabila, son of Laurent Kabila, as
temporary head of state.
(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A13)
2001 Jan 18, The Congo
government announced the death of Laurent Kabila.
(SFC, 1/19/01, p.A16)
2001 Jan 19, Fighting between
Congo’s Hema and Lendu tribes people left about 118 Hema dead along
with 159 Lendu.
(SFC, 1/29/01, p.A12,14)
2001 Feb 2, Congo’s Pres.
Joseph Kabila called for the armies of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi to
withdraw and promised that troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe
would leave after stability was restored.
(SFC, 2/3/01, p.A8)
2001 Feb 2, Hutu militiamen
backing Joseph Kabila ambushed a bus in rebel-controlled eastern
Congo and killed 11 passengers.
(SFC, 2/6/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 15, The warring
parties met and Joseph Kabila agreed to initiate talks with rebel
groups. The rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo agreed to
endorse a details withdrawal plan.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 27, Rwanda began
pulling back troops from a front-line Congo town.
(WSJ, 2/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 28, In Congo 3,000
troops from Rwanda and 150 from Uganda withdrew. All warring parties
were scheduled to make way for an 18-mile buffer zone, to be
monitored by the UN, by March 15.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 7, Congo soldiers
killed some of the 11 Lebanese nationals detained in the aftermath
of the Kabila assassination.
(SFC, 3/8/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 13, Rebel leader
Jean-Pierre Bemba completed his troop withdrawal from the front
lines. The Congolese army and allies soon followed.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 29, UN troops from
Uruguay began to set up camp on Lake Tanganyika for their mission to
help end the Congo civil war.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D4)
2001 Apr 15, Rebels backed by
Rwanda blocked the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Goma and
demanded that the UN first condemn atrocities by Congo.
(WSJ, 4/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 26, In northeastern
Congo 6 Red Cross workers were killed 30 miles north of Bunia.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A10)
2001 May 4, In Goma, Congo, a
ferry flipped at a dock on Lake Kivu and at least 19 people died.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 May 7, A report by the
Int’l. Rescue Committee estimated the death toll in Congo’s 33-month
war at 2 ½ million people, mostly due to disease and malnutrition.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 15, The UN voted to
keep peacekeepers in Congo for another year.
(SFC, 6/16/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 20, Congo’s Pres.
Kabila met with his main rival leaders for the 1st time to establish
a transitional government and end 3 years of war.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 2, Namibia confirmed
that it had pulled all its troops from all of Congo except the
capital. Uganda said it had pulled 6 of 10 battalions.
(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A10)
2002 Jan 17, The volcano Mount
Nyiragongo erupted near Goma, Congo, and rivers of lava
destroyed 14 villages. Goma was devastated and some 400,000 people
fled their homes. At least 50 people were killed and many sought
refuge in Rwanda.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
2002 Jan 21, Thousands of
Congolese left Rwanda to return to Goma after receiving scant help.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 22, In Goma, Congo, a
gas station exploded after some spilled gas was ignited by lava.
Dozens of people looting gasoline were killed.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 23, In Congo some 22.5
tons of food was distributed to the volcano stricken people of Goma.
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 16, It was reported
that over 40 people in Congo had been killed and dozens injured from
massive mudslides triggered by rains.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A26)
2002 Feb 26, In Congo peace
talks were suspended a day after the opening ceremony due to
wrangling over which political parties would be allowed to
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 11, Congo’s government
and rebels agreed to integrate into a new national army during peace
talks in South Africa.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A9)
2002 Apr 19, Congo peace talks
broke down over power-sharing.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A13)
2002 May 14, An uprising in
Kisangani, Congo, left 163 people dead. Three top commanders:
Barnard Biamungu, commander of the RCD's fifth brigade; Laurent
Nkunda, seventh brigade commander; and Gabriel Amisi, assistant
chief of staff for logistics were identified as part of the Rally
for Democracy, the Rwandan-backed rebel group responsible for the
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A11)(AP, 8/19/02)
2002 May, The refugee numbers
in Congo reached over 362,000.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.E5)
2002 Jun 11, An investigation
began into claims by Congo’s Hemu community that some 2,400 of its
people had been killed since April by the Lendu tribe and rebel
(SFC, 6/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Jul 22, Congolese and
Rwandan leaders said that they've reached an agreement to end a
four-year war in Congo, a fight that has defied resolution as it
drew in eight African countries and claimed more than two million
2002 Jul 24, In Congo Hutu
rebels rejected a peace deal that would force them back to Rwanda.
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 30, The leaders of
Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement, proclaiming it a key step
in efforts to end a war that has embroiled six African nations and
left 2.5 million people dead.
2002 Aug 6, In northeastern
Congo fighting began between rebels and tribesmen for control of
Bunia, an important trading center, and killed at least 48 people,
2002 Aug 9, In northeastern
Congo United Nations observers discovered a grave containing the
hacked bodies of 38 women and children outside Bunia.
2002 Aug 11, In Congo fighting
around Bunia ended and at least 110 civilians were killed and more
than 70 injured. More than 10,000 families were displaced during the
2002 Aug 11, In eastern Congo
renovation work uncovered the remains of 38 people buried in a
communal grave at the site where the United Nations began building
new headquarters for its peacekeeping force.
2002 Aug 15, Uganda has agreed
to withdraw its troops from neighboring Congo, where they were sent
four years ago to support Congolese rebels and root out Ugandan
2002 Aug 28, The United Nations
confirmed that Uganda and Zimbabwe have begun their pledged troop
withdrawals from Congo.
2002 Sep 5, In Congo some
6,000 Ngiti and Lendu tribe tribal fighters and their allies
attacked the mission hospital in Nyankunde, slaughtering patients in
their beds. They killed some 650 people from the Bira, Hema and 16
other tribes on the 1st day of the attacks.
2002 Sep 14, In Congo DRC it
was reported that some 1,200 people had died from a cholera epidemic
and that another 18,000 were infected.
(SFC, 9/14/02, p.A20)
2002 Sep 17, Rwanda began
withdrawing troops from eastern Congo as part of an agreement signed
with the Congolese government to end the four-year civil war in
Africa's third-largest nation.
2002 Oct 1, Rwanda began
pulling out 6,000 troops from a Congo border province, the latest
stage in a withdrawal of all its forces that it hopes to complete by
2002 Oct 5, Rwanda withdrew its
last troops from neighboring Congo, with some 1,100 soldiers
marching in single file out of the war-ravaged country.
2002 Oct 13, In eastern Congo
fighting broke out in a strategic port when pro-government tribal
fighters tried to wrest control of the town from rebels.
2002 Oct 19, A rebel group in
Congo said that it recaptured a strategic port in the eastern part
of the country and took dozens of prisoners after heavy fighting.
2002 Oct 21, A UN panel accused
criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and
Congo of plundering Congo's riches, and called on the United Nations
to impose financial restrictions on 29 companies and 54 individuals.
2002 Nov 11, Pres. Joseph
Kabila has suspended every official accused in a U.N. report on the
plunder of Congo's gold, diamond and other riches.
2002 Nov 17, In Ankoro, Congo,
government troops torched homes and shot residents in apparent
reprisals for the beating of a soldier. Estimates of the death toll
ranged from 29 to over 100.
2002 Nov 24, Negotiations
between the Congolese government and two rebel groups produced an
agreement in principle on the workings of a transitional government.
2002 Nov 26, The World Health
Organization confirmed an outbreak of flu in rebel-controlled
northern Congo, and the country's health minister said more than 500
people have died.
2002 Nov 27, A WHO official
said simultaneous outbreaks of the flu and meningitis have killed
185 people in a rebel-controlled area of northwestern Congo.
2002 Dec 17, Congo's
government, rebels and political opposition signed a power-sharing
agreement after four years of war and 2.5 million lives lost.
2003 Jan 7, In Congo a military
court convicted and sentenced 26 people to death in the Jan 16, 2001
assassination of Congo's president, Laurent Kabila.
(AP, 1/7/03)(SFC, 1/8/03, p.A16)
2003 Jan 8, A UN team was
reported to be investigating reports that Congolese rebel troops had
killed and eaten Pygmies in northeastern Congo. UN authorities
confirmed the reports Jan 15 and identified the rebel campaign as
"Operation Clean Slate."
(AP, 1/8/03)(SFC, 1/16/03, p.A9)
2003 Jan 21, Congo’s health
minister reported that a flu epidemic had killed more than 2,000
people in a far northern province.
2003 Feb 2, A tornado tore
through remote villages in Bandundu province in central Congo,
killing 164 people, destroying homes and ruining crops.
2003 Feb 24, In northeastern Congo hundreds
of civilians were killed and hundreds more were missing after
Congolese rebels allied with the government seized a key town and
launched a two-day campaign of murder, rape, looting and
destruction. In 2009 Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo faced
trial for planning and directing the massacre of more than 200
villagers in Bogoro.
(AP, 3/1/03)(AP, 11/25/09)
2003 Mar 6, The Congolese government and
rebels have agreed in Pretoria to meld their armed forces into a new
national army in a bid to end a 4 ½-year civil war and reunify the
vast central African nation.
2003 Mar 18, Congo leaders
signed a cease-fire with tribal militias and local chiefs in
2003 Mar 19, In northeastern
Congo 22 people were hacked to death.
2003 Mar 22, In eastern Congo
an overloaded ferry traveling between rebel-held ports sank in Lake
Tanganyika, killing 111 people. It was sailing in Burundian waters
to avoid rival tribal fighters.
2003 Apr 1, Congo's government
agreed to a power-sharing deal with rebel groups.
2003 Apr 3, In northeastern
Congo 966 people were killed in attacks by armed militants on
villages in Ituri province. UN investigators later discovered some
20 mass graves in the region.
2003 Apr 24, In Congo at least
60 members of the Lendu tribe were killed by the rival Hema in the
Ituri region near the Uganda border. The attack was ordered by Hema
militia leader Chief Yves Kahwa Mandro. The Lendu then killed about
60 Hema who were fleeing to Uganda to escape ongoing violence.
2003 May 8, Rival tribal
fighters battled for control of a northeastern Congolese town,
killing at least 21 people and forcing thousands to flee. Fighters
of the Union of Congolese Patriots, a rebel group dominated by Hema
tribesmen, had attacked Bunia in a bid to seize its airport
2003 May 8, A Russian-built
cargo plane lost a back door ramp over Congo, hurling more than 100
Congolese soldiers and their families to their deaths.
(Reuters, 5/9/03)(AP, 5/8/04)
2003 May 10, In northeastern
Congo tribal militias battled for control of Bunia, killing at least
2003 May 15, Fleeing Congo
civilians jammed roads out of Bunia by the thousands, trying to
escape rival ethnic militias battling for control with mortars and
2003 May 16, In northeastern
Congo rival tribes fighting signed a cease-fire.
2003 May 18, In northeastern
Congo the savagely killed bodies of 2 UN military observers were
found after having been reported missing for several days.
2003 May 16, In northeastern
Congo rival tribes fighting signed a cease-fire. There were over 100
confirmed killings and evidence of cannibalism.
(AP, 5/16/03)(SFC, 5/20/03, p.A8)
2003 May 21, In northeastern
Congo the death toll from more than a week of tribal fighting rose
to 280 people.
2003 Jun 14, French troops
leading an international force engaged in a firefight with gunmen
for the first time in their mission to stabilize the northeastern
Congolese town of Bunia.
2003 Jun 19, The Congolese
government and two rebel factions agreed to halt fighting in an
eastern region and pull back from newly occupied areas, hours after
a battle for a key town there killed dozens of people.
2003 Jun 29, Warring sides in
Congo agreed on the formation of a unified military.
2003 Jul 17, Congo's main rebel
leaders were sworn as vice presidents in a new power-sharing
government, designed to end the country's nearly 5-year civil war. 4
vice presidents represented the ruling party, the opposition party
and 2 rebel groups.
(AP, 7/17/03)(Econ, 8/9/03, p.39)
2003 Jul 24, Eleven aid workers
believed abducted by Rwandan and Burundian rebels in a restive
eastern province of war-ravaged Congo were killed.
2003 Jul 25, In northeastern
Congo thousands of tribal fighters attacked three villages with
mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, killing as
many as 150 people.
2003 Aug 28, The WWF reported
that the hippos of Congo's Virunga national Park have been nearly
wiped out by poachers and civil war.
(WSJ, 8/29/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 31, It was reported
that Congo tribal fighters killed at least 200 people over the last
month and abducted scores more during a series of attacks that
destroyed, Fataki, a northeast town once controlled by a rival
2003 Oct 6, In northeastern
Congo dozens of tribal fighters attacked Katchele village with
assault rifles and machetes, killing at least 65 people, mainly
children, looting property and setting huts on fire.
2003 Oct, A bolt of lightning
killed 11 students at the Mpimba Institute in Bikoro, Congo.
(SFC, 10/18/03, p.A26)
2003 Nov 1, Two small rebel
groups, the last rebel holdouts in eastern Congo, agreed to join the
country's transitional government. Leaders, Patrick Masunzu and
Aaron Nyamushebwa, agreed to join the government and integrate their
forces into a new national army.
2003 Nov 5, Pres. Bush met with
Congo Pres. Joseph Kabila, who sought assurances of continued US
humanitarian aid. The US has committed $77 million this year.
(SFC, 11/6/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 25, In Congo 2 ferries
collided in a storm on Mai-Ndombe lake. At least 182 people were
killed and more than 100 others were missing.
(AP, 11/27/03)(AP, 11/28/03)
2003 Nov 29, In central Congo a
Soviet-made plane crashed, killing 33, including 13 people on the
(AP, 11/29/03)(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 4, Congo health
officials were investigating the poison deaths of 64 people,
allegedly from a potion used to ward off evil spirits. A Roman
Catholic priest, who allegedly administered the drink, fled the
village of Bosobe early last week after people started falling ill.
2003 The civil war in Congo
(DRC), which had claimed at least 4 million people, stood in its
final throes. This was the largest death toll since WW II.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.63)
2003 In eastern Congo Germain
Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo led militias including child soldiers
who attacked the village of Bogoro, killing over 200 people
including women and children. Many of the victims were hacked to
death with machetes. In 2008 Katanga and Ngudjolo stood for trial at
the Int’l. Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands.
(SFC, 9/27/08, p.A3)
2004 Jan 28, It was reported
that Angolan troops and police have driven at least 10,000 Congolese
from northern Angola's diamond zones in a bloody month-old campaign.
2004 Jan 26, Nearly 200 people
were missing after a barge caught fire and sank in a river in
northwestern Congo near Lukelela. At least 301 people survived.
2004 Feb 12, In Congo a Kenyan
army officer, investigating reports of fighting between the rival
Hema and Lendu tribal militias, was shot to death when his U.N.
military convoy came under fire in Ituri province.
2004 Feb 18, The UN said it
would redeploy 4,000 of its forces to Congo's volatile northeast,
where peacekeepers have come under fire from rival ethnic militias
fighting for control of mineral riches.
2004 Feb 22, In southeast Congo
a militia led by a commander named "Cut-Throat" massacred more than
100 civilians and soldiers.
2004 Mar 28, In Kinshasa,
Congo, government forces battled attackers at military installations
and television headquarters. Diplomats called it a coup attempt
against Pres. Joseph Kabila.
2004 Apr 25, Clashes between
Congolese troops and Rwandan insurgents in eastern Congo killed at
least 61 people over the weekend.
2004 Apr 28, The Dian Fossey
fund reported that the lowland gorilla population in eastern Congo
has dropped over 70% since 1994 due to human warfare.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 May 6, Hundreds of Rwandan
rebels attacked Kingi village in volatile eastern Congo, sparking a
two-hour battle in which at least five Congolese soldiers and
insurgents were killed.
2004 May 26, The UN mission in
Democratic Republic of Congo is widening an investigation into
allegations peacekeepers sexually abused minors in the northeastern
town of Bunia.
2004 May 29, Unidentified
gunmen shot and killed a U.N. military observer in eastern Congo and
a second was reported missing. About 10,800 U.N. troops are deployed
in Congo, monitoring the peace deal and helping the government
regain control of the country. Elections are scheduled for June
2004 Jun 1, Congolese soldiers
battled troops loyal to Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a renegade
commander in eastern Congo, breaking a shaky cease-fire.
2004 Jun 2, In Congo DRC forces
loyal to renegade Congolese Tutsi commander Brig- Gen. Laurent
Nkunda, captured Bukavo, a key eastern border city from government
(AP, 6/2/04)(Econ, 6/5/04, p.46)
2004 Jun 3, In Congo U.N.
troops opened fire on rioters, killing two, as a mob broke into
their base and tens of thousands of protesters overran the capital
city of Kinshasa. Demonstrations swept the country over fighting in
its volatile east.
2004 Jun 6, In eastern Congo
insurgents ambushed a U.N. convoy, killing two South African
peacekeepers and wounding nine others in continuing.
2004 Jun 9, In eastern Congo
Government forces regained control of Bukavu without a fight as
rebel forces fled.
2004 Jun 11, Congo's government
said its security forces had put down an attempted coup by
dissidents in President Joseph Kabila's personal guard.
2004 Jun 11, Two crowded boats
collided on a lake straddling the Congo-Rwanda border on and one of
them capsized, with some 80 people believed trapped aboard.
2004 Jun 14, UN humanitarian
chief Jan Egeland said Eastern Congo is rapidly turning into a major
humanitarian disaster, with 3.3 million people out of reach of
2004 Jul 3, Rwanda reopened its
border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, further reducing
tension between the two countries.
2004 Jul 27, The U.N. Security
Council extended an arms embargo on Congo for a year as fighting
continued between rival factions.
2004 Aug 23, Azarias Ruberwa,
prominent Tutsi and one of Congo’s 4 vice-presidents, announced that
he and his party (RCD-Goma) were walking out of the transitional
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.40)
2004 Oct 10, In eastern Congo 2
boat accidents on Lake Kivu killed 68 people.
2004 Oct 16, Congo Pres. Joseph
Kabila visited northeastern territory formerly held by rebels. The
army claimed to have retaken a village near Zambia and killed at
least 20 militiamen.
2004 Oct, Congo’s government
quelled an uprising near a mine owned by Australia’s Anvil Mining
Ltd. The UN later accused Anvil of providing the government with
vehicles and planes in the operation that killed scores of
villagers. In 2007 a military court jailed two Congolese army
officers for life for the 2004 massacre of civilians. The verdict
cleared three Canadian mining company employees of complicity.
(WSJ, 3/20/07, p.A13)(AFP, 6/29/07)
2004 Nov 22, A senior UN
official said the UN is investigating about 150 allegations of
sexual abuse by UN civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of
them recorded on videotape. Health officials said an outbreak of a
severe form of typhoid has killed at least 16 people in Kinshasa,
sickening at least 144 more.
2004 Nov 25, Congo Pres. Joseph
Kabila suspended 6 cabinet ministers and 10 directors of state-run
companies. A parliamentary inquiry alleged they had embezzled
2004 Nov 26, Rwanda said it was
ready to hold talks with Democratic Republic of Congo Pres. Joseph
Kabila to defuse growing tensions over Rwandan rebels based in
2004 Nov 29, Congo said it will
send up to 10,000 soldiers to its eastern province of North Kivu to
prevent rebels and Rwandan forces from launching cross border
2004 Nov 29, Rwandan troops
attacked a town in eastern Congo. The next day a Congolese commander
said at least 19 civilians were killed.
2004 Nov 30, Congo-based
Rwandan rebels, under threat of imminent attack by Rwanda, repeated
an allegation that Rwandan troops had crossed the border in recent
days to seize the vast country's mineral-rich east.
2004 Dec 9, An aid agency
reported that some 1,000 Congolese civilians a day are dying from
disease and malnutrition, due to a festering conflict that has
killed 3.8 million people.
2004 Dec 11, Rival factions of
Congo's army battled in the eastern region of the vast country,
killing several people.
2004 Dec 14, Congo's government
insisted that its forces were fighting Rwandan troops in the
mineral-rich east of the country and not dissident units of the
2004 Dec 17, The UN said
foreign troops have crossed into Congo and called on outside forces
to stop giving weapons and reinforcements to renegade soldiers
battling army loyalists.
2004 Dec 17, Dissident forces
attacked the village of Buramba, Congo, targeting civilians
suspected of sympathizing with pro-government militiamen. At least
30 civilians were killed in the massacre believed to have been a
reprisal for the killing of 3 renegade soldiers by a pro-government
2004 Dec 19, UN officials said
about 100,000 civilians in eastern Congo have fled a week of
fighting between renegade soldiers and army loyalists, hiding deep
into the forest where humanitarian workers cannot reach them.
2004 Dec 22-2004 Dec 26,
Government troops in eastern Congo battled Rwandan militiamen in
growing violence between the former allies from the country's bloody
2005 Jan 7, Congo’s electoral
commission hinted that elections scheduled for June would be
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.44)
2005 Jan 10, Congo security
forces fired bullets and tear gas at demonstrators burning tires in
Congo's capital, killing at 4 people among thousands protesting a
government decision to delay upcoming national elections.
(AP, 1/10/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.44)
2005 Jan 14, A strike brought
the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo to a standstill as
public transport shut down and businesses remained closed in protest
at the possible postponement of elections.
2005 Jan 29, A UN spokesman
said militiamen armed with guns and machetes killed 16 people and
kidnapped at least 34 girls in attacks this week on a remote area of
2005 Feb 8, UNICEF said that it
was providing urgently needed aid for 50,000 people caught up in an
upsurge in fighting in Congo.
2005 Feb 18, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said an outbreak of plague in northeastern
Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 61 diamond miners and
infected hundreds more.
2005 Feb 25, In Congo
militiamen in the volatile Ituri district ambushed UN troops. 9
Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in what was the 4th deadliest
attack on UN troops in Africa.
2005 Mar 1, In Congo UN
peacekeeping troops, backed by an attack helicopter, responded after
being fired on and killed up to 60 militants accused of terrorizing
villagers and killing nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers. Congo arrested
an eastern militia leader and 2 generals related to the peacekeeper
killings. Women fighters were among the 50 people killed by UN
troops under Dutch Gen. Patrick Cammaert. On April 12 the human
rights group Justice Plus listed names of several alleged civilian
victims from the raid in eastern Congo and said they "paid with
their life, while the mandate of the United Nations was to protect
(AP, 3/2/05)(WSJ, 3/2/05, p.A1)(Reuters,
3/5/05)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.49)(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 Mar 7, An international
human rights group said militiamen and renegade soldiers have raped
and beaten tens of thousands of women and young girls in eastern
Congo, and nearly all the crimes have gone unpunished by the
country's broken judicial system.
2005 Mar 16, UN peacekeepers
charged that militiamen in northeast Congo grilled bodies on a spit
and boiled two girls alive as their mother watched, adding
cannibalism to a list of atrocities allegedly carried out by Lendu
(AP, 3/17/05)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.49)
2005 Mar 19, Congo soldiers
arrested Thomas Lubanga, a warlord accused of years of atrocities in
eastern Congo, where UN officials say rival militias have created
the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crisis.
2005 Apr 1, UN officials said a
cholera epidemic has killed at least 4 and infected dozens in a
squalid camp for displaced people in northeastern Congo, and it
threatens to spread across the entire region.
2005 Apr 2, UN troops killed up
to 38 militia fighters during a raid by hundreds of peacekeepers
backed by helicopter gunships in the Ituri district of eastern
2005 Apr 18, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to widen the arms embargo in Congo as part
of stepped-up efforts to bring peace to the African country's
2005 Apr 18, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. Recipients
included Corneille E.N. Ewango of Congo for his efforts in animal
and plant protection during a decade of civil war.
(SFC, 4/18/05, p.B2)
2005 May 5, In central Congo a
Russian-made airplane crashed, killing 10 of the 11 passengers
2005 May 12, Gunmen ambushed a
UN peacekeeping patrol in Congo's restless eastern Ituri region,
killing one soldier and injuring five.
2005 May 14, Congo's
legislature adopted a constitution that reduces the required age for
presidential candidates, a change that would allow President Joseph
Kabila to stand in the country's next elections.
2005 May 18, A UN report said
Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in eastern Congo have killed, raped,
or kidnapped more than 900 civilians over the past year.
2005 May 23, In eastern Congo
militiamen calling themselves Rastas killed at least 18 people and
kidnapped at least 50 others in a late-night attack on the village
of Ninja, hacking their victims to death as they ran for safety.
2005 May 23, A Russian-made
plane crashed shortly after takeoff near Bunyakiri, Congo, killing
2005 Jun 22, Senior
peacekeepers said more than 15,000 gunmen have joined a UN
disarmament process in Congo's Ituri district but that militias were
still rearming and regrouping despite intense UN military
2005 Jun 27, In northeastern
Congo militia fighters using women and children as human shields
battled with UN peacekeepers south of Bunia.
2005 Jun 30, In Kinshasa riot
police fired tear gas and beat demonstrators with batons as
thousands protested delays to Congo's first postwar presidential
elections. At least six died in violence nationwide.
2005 Jul 9, In Congo DRC
Rwandan rebels burned 39 people alive, mostly women and children,
when they torched the village of Mtulumamba in eastern Congo in what
some locals said was punishment for supporting UN peacekeepers.
2005 Jul 29, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo and other
sanctions against Congo for another year.
2005 Jul, Airborne researchers
during the summer counted just 683 hippos on the Congolese side of
Lake Edward, which straddles the Congo-Uganda border. In the 1970s
researchers counted a record 9,600 hippos in the same area. The
reduction of hippos and their dung, due to heavy poaching during
civil strife, caused a severed drop in the population of tilapia
(WSJ, 11/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 10, Congolese Vice
President Azeria Ruberwa met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Ruberwa talked of his government's
concerns about 14 Congolese men, suspected of plotting a coup, who
were in Uganda. Rugunda said 8 men left before the expulsion order.
The other six were given 48 hours to leave.
2005 Sep 5, In eastern Congo a
Russian-made airplane crashed in the forest, killing 7, including 3
Russian crew members.
2005 Sep 12, An international
environmental group warned that only 887 hippos are left in Congo,
and that they will be extinct in the African country. The latest
aerial survey puts the hippopotamus population in northeastern
Congo's Virunga National Park down to under 1,000 animals, compared
to some 29,000 in 1974.
2005 Sep 30, Thousands of
foreign militiamen in Congo appeared to ignore this day’s deadline
to leave this central African country or be evicted by force.
2005 Oct 28, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the 16,700-member UN
peacekeeping mission in Congo for a year and add 300 troops.
2005 Oct 30, Congolese troops
rescued four electoral workers from their militia captors in a raid
that set off a battle that killed dozens of militiamen and one
soldier. Some 40 Mayi-Mayi militiamen were killed by the army. One
soldier was killed and three others injured.
2005 Oct 31, Hundreds of
government troops backed by U.N. peacekeepers began flushing heavily
armed Rwandan rebels from eastern Congo, destroying insurgent camps
and sending smoke rising above the restive region.
2005 Nov 28, In eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, at least 60 people were killed when
they were swept off the roof of a train into the river below as the
train crossed a bridge.
2005 Nov, Congolese soldiers
engaged in a 6-day operation to clear militias from Virunga National
Park. 14 rebels were killed and 321 captured.
(WSJ, 11/19/05, p.A8)
2005 Dec 5, In Congo a
magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East
Africa toppling dozens of homes in Kalemie and burying children in
the rubble. Several people were reported killed.
(AP, 12/05/05)(WSJ, 12/6/05, p.A1)
2005 Dec 18, Congo's
war-beleaguered people voted in the first national ballot in over
three decades, banging on polling-booth doors to be allowed in to
say yes or no to a draft constitution meant to put the country on
the path to democracy and lasting peace.
2005 Dec 19, The International
Court of Justice held Uganda responsible for the killing, torture
and cruel treatment of civilians in Congo from August 1998 to July
1999 and ordered reparations. Fighting in the region raged for three
more years and the armies withdrew only in June 2003, despite the
court's order in July 2000 to halt operations and safeguard
2005 Dec 20, The "Yes" vote in
Democratic Republic of Congo's referendum on whether to accept a
post-war constitution took a strong early lead after a poll seen as
paving the way for elections next year.
2005 Dec 24, Congolese and UN
troops captured a militia base in the volatile east, as referendum
results showed an overwhelming "Yes" to a new constitution intended
to help end the country's conflict. UN and Congolese soldiers
attacked militiamen in Ituri and Ugandan rebels in Kivu province
killing some 80 rebels.
(AP, 12/24/05)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.49)
2005 Dec 25-2005 Dec 26, Some
3,500 Congolese troops backed by 600 UN Indian peacekeepers battled
Ugandan rebels near Congo's eastern city of Beni, leaving 35 rebels
and one Indian UN soldier dead.
(AP, 12/26/05)(AFP, 12/26/05)
2006 Jan 6, A study published
in Britain's leading medical journal said war-ravaged Congo is
suffering the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis, with 38,000
people dying each month mostly from easily treatable diseases.
2006 Jan 11, Congo officials
said a new constitution for was approved by a landslide vote, paving
the way for historic presidential and parliamentary elections in
2006 Jan 23, Ugandan rebels
killed eight Guatemalan peacekeepers in Congo in an ambush near the
border with Sudan. The gunbattle also left 15 attackers dead.
2006 Jan 29, In eastern Congo
rebels in Rutshuru forced a local radio station off the air after a
wave of fighting and looting in the troubled Central African nation.
2006 Feb 12, Jan Egeland, UN
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said the
international community must provide $680 million in aid for Congo
this year to stop a humanitarian disaster that kills as many people
as the 2004 Asian tsunami every six months.
2006 Feb 13, The UN launched a
$680 million aid plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo,
complaining the world remained ignorant of what it called the worst
humanitarian crisis since World War Two.
2006 Feb 17, UN and government
officials said 6 Congolese soldiers died of hunger in an army
training camp that ran out of food in the east of the country.
2006 Feb 18, The Democratic
Republic of Congo adopted a new constitution aimed at bringing an
end to decades of dictatorship, war and chaos in the vast country,
and paving the way for elections by mid-2006.
2006 Feb 20, In Congo Reuters
obtained a copy of a 2005 report of a parliamentary investigation,
established to probe business deals signed during Congo's 1996-1997
and 1998-2003 wars. The report said dozens of government contracts
struck during Congo's wars must be renegotiated, some companies
closed and leading individuals brought to justice.
2006 Feb 23, A top UN
humanitarian official said thousands of civilians have taken refuge
on floating islands in the lakes of Congo's Katanga province to
escape rape and murder by government and militia fighters.
2006 Mar 1, Congolese army
soldiers fighting alongside U.N. peacekeepers against ethnic
militiamen mutinied and ransacked a UN camp in the east of the vast
country. Hundreds of peacekeepers and thousands of government troops
have fought for three days to dislodge militia fighters from the
town of Tchei in northeastern Ituri district, where ethnic violence
has killed 60,000 people since 1999.
(Reuters, 3/1/06)(Reuters, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 5, In eastern Congo UN
troops killed several militia fighters during heavy clashes after a
joint operation with the government army was aborted by a mutiny
among its soldiers.
2006 Mar 16, In Congo a defense
ministry source said Defense Minister Adolphe Onusumba had written
to the head of the army asking him to suspend or arrest General Widi
Mbuilu Divioka, the army commander in Katanga province. The general
was being accused of diverting military food trains for private
business after at least 20 soldiers died from hunger or malnutrition
at a southern camp.
2006 Mar 16, Uganda's army said
the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels had left a
south Sudanese hideout and joined his deputy in the jungles of
2006 Mar 17, Thomas Lubanga
Dyilo, a Congolese militia leader accused of conscripting and
enlisting children aged under 15 for warfare (1998-2002), became the
first suspect sent for trial at the International Criminal Court
(ICC) in the Netherlands.
(Reuters, 3/17/06)(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 2, In CongoDRC
registration closed for multi-party elections. Over 70 people had
filed for the presidency and 8,650 had signed up as candidates for
the parliamentary elections.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.48)
2006 Apr 4, Human Rights Watch
said tens of thousands of street children across Congo risk being
recruited by political parties to create chaos, intimidate voters
and contest the results of up-coming elections.
2006 Apr 12, Government troops
and UN peacekeepers launched a fresh military offensive in Congo's
restive east, targeting Rwandan Hutu rebels blamed for attacking
civilians at home and in Congo.
2006 Apr 14, The Central
African Republic said it has asked the International Criminal Court
to investigate crimes against humanity allegedly committed by its
former president and a Congolese vice president. Government
spokesman Celestin Gamou said CAR suspects ex-President Ange-Felix
Patasse and Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba of ordering or
committing murder and rape against civilians, as well as of
embezzling funds and destroying public and private property.
2006 Apr 28, A cargo plane
carrying telecom equipment crashed in eastern Congo, killing as many
as eight passengers and crew on board. Another aircraft carrying
three people disappeared in the same region.
2006 Apr 29, The UN said
reports of a Ugandan army incursion into Congo were "credible" after
peacekeepers conducted a verification mission in the remote
northeastern border region.
2006 Apr 30, Congo's electoral
commission said that national elections, the first in 40 years for
the violence-plagued central African nation, will take place July
30, about a month later than planned.
2006 May 1, Rwandan Hutu rebels
attacked a village and an army camp in a raid that left 7 residents
dead. Congolese troops killed six rebels during an attack at an army
camp that also claimed the lives of a soldier and his wife.
2006 May 10, The UN reported an
upsurge of rapes, killings and torture by Congo's security forces
and warned that UN peacekeepers overseeing the postwar transition in
the country could end their cooperation with the police and army.
2006 May 13, An international
charity said rich countries are not giving enough money to help
fight a humanitarian crisis in Congo, where more than 1,000 people
die daily from violence, hunger and disease.
2006 May 16, The UN mission
Congo said Innocent Kaina, one of the founding members of a militia
group in northeastern Congo, has been wounded and captured in
fighting with the Congolese army.
2006 May 23, Congo arrested a
group of foreign security guards on suspicion of plotting a coup
ahead of national elections. Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba said
there were three Americans, 10 Nigerians and 12 South Africans among
the group of 32 taken into custody. Mbemba said all the men had
received visits from their respective ambassadors.
2006 May 27, Congo released a
group of South Africans, Nigerians and Americans arrested over what
it called a suspected coup plot, saying it did not have time to try
them itself before long-awaited national elections in July. In the
volatile northeast Ituri district a Nepalese peacekeeper was killed
and seven others were feared kidnapped by militiamen during a
military operation. 2 peacekeepers were released on June 27. The
remaining 5 were released July 8.
(Reuters, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)(Reuters, 7/8/06)
2006 Jun 1, The German
parliament overwhelmingly approved the government's plan to deploy
German troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo during its July
election, despite public skepticism about the mission.
2006 Jun 20, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report that Congo's armed
forces and police are responsible for the majority of documented
abuses against children in the chaotic country, sometimes abducting
kids to carry equipment or for sex.
2006 Jun 30, Campaigning began
for Congo's first multiparty elections in more than 4 decades.
Troops fired into a crowd and killed 12 protesters in retaliation
for the death of a soldier in Matadi.
(AP, 6/30/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.41)
2006 Jul 8, In Kinshasa, Congo,
gunmen killed Mwamba Bapuwa (64), an independent journalist, a day
after foreign donors called on the government to guarantee press
freedoms ahead of historic elections this month. Bapuwa had recently
criticized the government and survived a previous attack several
2006 Jul 11, Police in
Kinshasa, Congo, fired tear gas to break up stone-throwing
demonstrators who were alleging electoral irregularities ahead of
the country's first presidential vote in four decades.
2006 Jul 17, Congo officials
said Peter Karim, a warlord accused of kidnapping seven UN
peacekeepers, has agreed to disband his militia and become a colonel
in Congo's army. Gunmen opened fire on an election rally and killed
several people in Congo's volatile east, the latest outburst of
violence as the nation prepares for its first free legislative and
presidential balloting in 46 years.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 24, A UNICEF report
said more than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo and
even more are displaced, sexually abused or swept into the camps of
2006 Jul 27, In Kinshasa,
Congo, 3 policemen and a civilian were killed in clashes outside a
stadium where 40,000 supporters greeted Vice-President Jean-Pierre
Bemba, a rebel leader turned presidential candidate.
2006 Jul 30, Congolese voted in
their first democratic election in more than four decades. Incumbent
President Joseph Kabila later won a runoff.
(AP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 31, Dozens of polling
stations reopened in Congo’s second-largest city, offering citizens
stymied by violence during their nation’s historic elections another
chance to vote.
2006 Aug 1, A Congolese
opposition party and former rebel group denounced widespread fraud
in the country's historic elections in a protest that heralded a
divisive political dispute over the polls.
2006 Aug 3, In eastern Congo a
small passenger plane crashed into a mountain and then tumbled into
a valley, killing all 17 passengers and crew.
2006 Aug 12, President Joseph
Kabila's share of the vote in Congo's historic elections rose above
50% as 1 million more votes were counted and certified.
2006 Aug 20, President Joseph
Kabila failed to win an outright majority in Congo's first elections
in more than four decades. Kabila won 45% of the 16.9 million votes
cast in the July 30 ballot; Bemba had 20%. Former rebel leader
Jean-Pierre Bemba will face Kabila in a second round of voting.
Security-forces loyal to Kabila and Bemba fought gunbattles that
killed at least two people.
2006 Aug 21, A fierce gun
battle pinned down foreign envoys in the Congolese capital Kinshasa
as fighting erupted for a second day following the announcement of a
presidential election run-off. At least five people died in
(Reuters, 8/21/06)(AFP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 22, In Kinshasa
fighting flared for a third day between supporters of Congo's two
presidential candidates, as the UN called for an immediate
cease-fire and a European Union military force was sending
2006 Aug 28, In the Netherlands
prosecutors at the International Criminal Court filed their first
indictment, charging Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord, for
allegedly abducting and recruiting children as young as 10 to fight
in Congo's brutal civil war.
2006 Sep 4, In CongoDRC a boat
overloaded with passengers and freight sank in choppy waters on Lake
Kivu, killing at least 35 people.
2006 Sep 8, The UN's
humanitarian chief called for an end to the rapes plaguing women in
war-battered Congo and said the perpetrators, including those
wearing military uniforms, must be severely punished.
2006 Sep 9, In CongoDRC it was
reported to take 155 days to register a business at a cost of 5
times the average annual income of $120.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.60)
2006 Sep 19, Supporters of
Congo's presidential challenger barricaded streets, stopped traffic
and threw stones in Kinshasa, a day after a fire at his headquarters
destroyed the party's television and radio stations.
2006 Sep 22, Democratic
Republic of Congo's first freely elected parliament in more than 40
years convened, with President Joseph Kabila's coalition poised to
appoint a prime minister.
2006 Oct 3, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo one person was killed and two injured when a
Belgian drone from the EU force crashed in Kinshasa.
2006 Oct 11, Amnesty
International said at least 11,000 children in Congo are still in
the hands of armed groups or unaccounted for three years after the
end of a war in which they were captured and forced to fight.
2006 Oct 13, In Britain the
chief of staff to the Democratic Republic of Congo's President
Joseph Kabila was assaulted and robbed in northwest London while
waiting to appear on a television program. Leonard She Okitundu was
attacked by a gang who beat him around the head and body with a
baseball bat, stripped him of his clothes, and posted pictures of
them on the Internet. Okitundu said his attackers shouted that he
was working for the Rwandans, and that they would kill anyone who
2006 Oct 13, The WHO said it
has confirmed an outbreak of plague in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, with 42 deaths reported among 626 suspected cases over the
past 10 weeks.
2006 Oct 16, A US-based rights
group accused soldiers in Congo's postwar, national-unity army of
abducting civilians and forcing them to serve as personal attendants
and mine workers in the troubled Central African country.
2006 Oct 24, In CongoDRC more
than a dozen people jailed for the 2001 assassination of Congolese
President Laurent Kabila vanished from a prison in the capital
2006 Oct 29, Congo's President
Laurent Kabila faced a former rebel chief in a runoff vote.
2006 Oct 30, Counting from
Congo's election proceeded swiftly. Rioters destroyed 43 polling
stations and thousands of ballot papers were burned in the east
after a soldier killed two election officials.
(AP, 10/30/06)(WSJ, 10/31/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 31, President George
W. Bush ordered that assets be frozen of dissident general Laurent
Nkunda and six others considered by the White House to be
destabilizing forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2006 Nov 1, Congo's government
welcomed a decision by the US to impose sanctions on seven warlords
and businessmen who are accused of fueling instability in this vast
country's lawless east.
2006 Nov 2, Thousands returned
to the polls in a northeast Congo town and recast ballots destroyed
in rioting that followed the weekend presidential runoff.
2006 Nov 10, Congo’s incumbent
Joseph Kabila retained a commanding lead in the presidential runoff
with about two-thirds of the vote counted.
2006 Nov 11, In Congo gunfire
and explosions boomed through Kinshasa in a new round of fighting
between forces loyal to two presidential candidates awaiting the
results of a runoff election meant to secure an end to years of war.
2006 Nov 14, Nearly complete
results give incumbent Joseph Kabila an insurmountable lead in
Congo's presidential runoff, but his opponent, Jean-Pierre Bemba,
2006 Nov 15, In Congo incumbent
Joseph Kabila was declared winner of historic presidential
elections. The electoral commission gave Kabila 58% of the vote
against 42% for Bemba. Former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, vowed
to contest the count. Kabila lost to Bemba in 6 out of 11 provinces.
(AP, 11/16/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.49)(Econ,
2006 Nov 18, Jean-Pierre Bemba,
the former rebel who lost Congo's presidential elections, filed a
lawsuit at the Supreme Court to challenge the vote count as dozens
of his supporters marched through downtown Kinshasa.
2006 Nov 21, Gunfire and street
fights erupted outside Congo's supreme court and a blaze swept
through the building as hearings began over fraud allegations in a
presidential election meant to bring lasting peace. Bosange Mbaka, a
reporter with the Kinshasa-based newspaper Mambenga, was arrested
while covering a supreme court hearing in Kinshasa. In May 2007
media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for his
(AP, 11/21/06)(AFP, 5/21/07)
2006 Nov 24, The UN said its
investigators have discovered three mass graves at a northeast Congo
military camp containing the bodies of 30 people, including women
and children, who were allegedly killed by soldiers.
2006 Nov 25, Congo’s government
and the UN said fighters loyal to warlord Laurent Nkunda attacked
army positions in eastern Congo with small arms and heavy weapons.
Nkunda controlled thousands of fighters and claimed the loyalty of
the 81st and 83rd army brigades, the troops involved in the most
recent clashes. Nkunda controlled some 20,000 square miles in North
(AP, 11/25/06)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.44)
2006 Nov 27, Congo’s supreme
court upheld President Joseph Kabila's victory in landmark
elections, ruling as unfounded the runner-up's charges of widespread
2006 Dec 5, A shell apparently
fired by Congolese troops fighting forces loyal to a dissident
general near the Ugandan border landed among a group of some 12,000
refugees in Uganda, killing at least seven.
2006 Dec 6, Congo inaugurated
Joseph Kabila as its first freely elected president in more than
2006 Dec 6, A Ugandan army
spokesman said at least 12,000 refugees fleeing fighting in eastern
Congo DRC have crossed over the border into southwest Uganda.
2006 Dec 7, Researchers said
the Ebola virus may have killed more than 5,000 gorillas in West
Africa (Congo-Gabon), enough to send them into extinction if people
continue to hunt them.
2006 Dec 15, In Kenya 11
African heads of state attending the 2nd International Conference on
the Great Lakes Region signed a landmark $2 billion
(1.5-billion-euro) security and development pact to forestall fresh
violence in the area.
2006 Dec 27, Fighting broke out
in eastern Congo between government troops and forces loyal to a
dissident general, killing at least 19 people. A group of Congolese
soldiers went on trial for war crimes, a month after UN
investigators found mass graves inside their eastern army camp with
some 30 bodies including women and children.
(AP, 12/27/06)(Reuters, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 28, Vital Kamerhe, an
advisor to President Joseph Kabila, was named head of the Democratic
Republic of Congo's new National Assembly, in a ballot that saw
presidential allies sweep key parliamentary posts.
2006 Bosco Ntaganda, a former
Congolese warlord, was first indicted on war crimes charges by the
ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands. The court accused
Ntaganda of using child soldiers for fighting in Ituri, in
northeastern Congo, from 2002 to 2003.
2007 Jan 5, In central Congo a
diamond mine collapsed in Tshikapa. 2 people were soon rescued and
15 bodies were later pulled from the mine. Further rescue efforts
were abandoned. The group appeared to have been teenagers who hoped
that recent rains had uncovered diamonds in the community mine.
2007 Jan 6, Cardinal Frederic
Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi (b.1930), Congo's top Roman Catholic prelate,
died in a Belgian hospital. He had warned of what he called
international meddling in the country's recent landmark elections.
2007 Jan 17, Conservationists
said rebels in eastern Congo, loyal to warlord Laurent Nkunda, have
killed and eaten two silverback mountain gorillas in Virunga
National Park. Congo’s army said Nkunda agreed two weeks ago to stop
fighting government forces in exchange for a government promise not
to pursue war crimes charges against him.
2007 Jan 27, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held up Congo's first elections in 46
years as a sign of hope for the rest of Africa, praising the
country's fragile democracy on his first tour of the continent.
2007 Jan 29, The International
Criminal Court (ICC) ruled there was enough evidence against Thomas
Lubanga, a Congolese militiaman accused of recruiting child
soldiers, to launch the new court's first trial.
2007 Jan 31, In Congo at least
37 people were killed in clashes between security forces and
opposition supporters protesting against the results of governorship
polls in western Bas-Congo province.
2007 Feb 3, In Congo officials
said clashes last week between security forces and demonstrators
claiming electoral fraud left 97 people dead in several southwestern
(AP, 2/2/07)(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 13, In south-east
Congo a freight train derailed and at least 20 people were killed.
2007 Feb 15, The Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the nearly 18,000-strong UN
peacekeeping force in Congo for two months to give the
secretary-general time to recommend possible changes in its mandate
following last year's successful elections.
2007 Feb 20, Congo’s army and
UN officials said days of clashes between the army and Rwandan and
Congolese militias in eastern Congo have killed at least 23
combatants and forced thousands to flee.
2007 Feb 26, The World Vision
humanitarian group said that more than 50% of children in refugee
camps around Africa's volatile Great Lakes area have experienced
some form of sexual abuse. The data, collected in camps in the
Burundi, Congo (DRC), Tanzania, northern Uganda and Rwanda, said
widespread poverty made children vulnerable to abuses.
2007 Mar 6, Fortunat Lumu, the
head of Congo's atomic energy commission, was arrested along with an
aide on suspicion of illegally selling uranium.
2007 Mar 22, In Congo heavy
gunfire broke out in Kinshasa near the home of a former warlord who
placed second in last fall's presidential vote. Soldiers deployed
throughout the city, and residents fled in vehicles and on foot.
2007 Mar 23, Congo's chief
prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former
warlord and senator, who took refuge inside a foreign embassy while
his personal army and government troops fought in the capital. The
head of Congo's army said in a nationally televised address that
security forces had regained control of Kinshasa after two days of
intense fighting against the militia of a former warlord who lost
last year's presidential runoff. An aid group working with hospitals
and morgues said more than 100 people died in two days of fighting.
EU envoys later said the fighting left 600 dead.
(AP, 3/23/07)(WSJ, 3/24/07, p.A1)(AP,
3/25/07)(WSJ, 3/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 18, Burundi, Rwanda,
the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda adopted a joint military
strategy to fight rebel groups operating in the war-scarred Great
2007 Apr 26, Six central
African countries (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African
Republic, Cameroon and Congo) plan to launch a common passport in
July, permitting the free movement of goods and people across their
2007 May 4, The UN agency for
refugees began repatriating thousands of Congolese refugees in
Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2007 May 11-2007 May 12, Local
militia allied to Rwandan Hutu rebels killed four Congolese soldiers
during clashes in a volatile eastern region of the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
2007 May 16, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend its peacekeeping mission in
Congo until the end of the year while calling for a timetable to
gradually withdraw the nearly 18,000-member force.
2007 May 23, The BBC reported
that Pakistani UN peacekeepers charged with disarming Congolese
militia instead engaged in gold and weapons trafficking with militia
members. The Pakistani unit in question deployed to Mongwalu in
2007 May 27, In eastern Congo
Rwandan rebels attacked villagers with machetes, spears and hammers,
killing 17, wounding 28 and taking up to a dozen hostages.
2007 Jun 12, In Kinshasa, DRC,
delegates from 20 African countries began talks on the process of
disarming and reintegrating former combatants to boost peace and
development on the violence-wracked continent.
2007 Jun 13, Serge Maheshe, a
Congolese journalist working for the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi, was
shot dead in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of
Bukavu. Police the next day arrested 2 soldiers for the killing.
(AFP, 6/13/07)(Reuters, 6/15/07)
2007 Jul 9, The UN-backed Okapi
radio station said that Floribert Chui Bin Kositi, a former
Congolese rebel leader, was beaten to death in Congo’s restive
eastern Kivu region. He held a senior position in a state-run body
monitoring food imports and recently ordered a large consignment of
rice to be destroyed on the grounds that it was unfit for human
2007 Jul 13, UN officials said
they are investigating allegations that Indian peacekeepers in Congo
traded food and even military intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels
in return for gold.
2007 Jul 16, Dikembe Mutombo
(41), NBA basketball star, said he wants to score for his native
Democratic Republic of Congo by financing a new hospital and
training young hoops players. Mutombo invested $15 million (11
million euros) in the construction of the hospital, more than half
the total cost.
2007 Jul 20, Aid officials said
clashes between rival militia groups in eastern Congo have killed
nine fighters and reduced dozens of houses to smoldering ruins. The
fighting erupted a week ago in Minembwe, about 120 miles southwest
of the eastern lakeside city of Uvira.
2007 Jul 30, A UN investigator
said extreme sexual violence against women is pervasive in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and local authorities do little
to stop it or prosecute those responsible.
2007 Aug 1, A passenger train
derailed in central Congo and eight cars tumbled off the tracks,
killing about 100 people and trapping some passengers in the
wreckage. People in the southeastern town of Moba attacked the UN
office after a local radio station aired false rumors that the
United Nations was to resettle Congolese ethnic Tutsis in the
region. 4 UN military observers were wounded and 21 staff were
(AP, 8/2/07)(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Uganda gunmen on
Lake Albert attacked a boat operated by Canada's Heritage Oil Corp.,
killing a British contractor. 3 armed patrol boats from Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), on the other side of the lake, had opened
fire on Heritage's boat.
2007 Aug 18, UNESCO said a
joint mission of several UN agencies is conducting an emergency
investigation into the shooting of endangered mountain gorillas in a
Democratic Republic of Congo national park. In the last two months,
seven of the primates have been killed in separate incidents in the
2007 Aug 20, South African
President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Kinshasa for a working visit aimed
at boosting relations with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
2007 Aug 28, Africa's Great
Lakes nations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and
Uganda) vowed to eliminate rebel groups roaming their territory and
spurring insecurity in the continent's most volatile region.
2007 Aug 29, It was reported
that more than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo,
including all those who attended the funerals of two village chiefs,
in what health officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.
2007 Sep 3, Congolese officials
reported killing 28 soldiers loyal to Gen. Nkunda, a renegade army
officer, in exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasting
2007 Sep 4, Rangers and 300
villagers abandoned a gorilla reserve in eastern Congo as government
soldiers battled troops loyal to a renegade general in sections of
Virunga park. The UN said ten thousand Congolese refugees have fled
to neighboring Uganda following clashes between the Congolese army
and renegade troops in its eastern provinces.
(Reuters, 9/4/07)(AP, 9/4/07)(Econ, 9/8/07, p.52)
2007 Sep 7, Renegade Congolese
General Laurent Nkunda said the Congolese army had attacked his
position, breaking a fragile ceasefire negotiated by United Nations
mediators in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
2007 Sep 8, Congo and Uganda
signed an agreement to immediately move refugee camps 93 miles from
their shared border to improve security.
2007 Sep 11, The World Health
Organization issued an alert urging more doctors to travel to Congo
to combat an outbreak of Ebola fever, which kills nearly all of
those it infects and has no cure or treatment.
2007 Sep 11, Six Congolese
soldiers were detained by the Burundian navy for repeatedly
attacking fishing boats on Lake Tanganyika and stealing their catch.
2007 Sep 13, The UN said the
repatriation of Congolese refugees from neighbouring Zambia was
suspended, due to insecurity in the small town of Moba where they
2007 Sep 14, A UN spokesman
said UN peacekeepers have discovered three graves, each containing
several bodies, at Rubare, a military base in eastern Congo recently
abandoned by rebels loyal to a renegade Gen. Nkunda.
2007 Sep 17, China and the
Democratic Republic of Congo signed a draft accord in which China
would lend $5 billion to modernize Congo’s decrepit infrastructure
and rich but deteriorated mining sector. Congo’s government later
announced that Chinese state-owned firms would build or refurbish
various railways, roads and mines at accost of $12 billion.
(Reuters, 9/18/07)(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.3)
2007 Sep 24, Two Congolese
troops and a Ugandan soldier were killed in clashes on the
flashpoint border of Lake Albert where oil was recently discovered.
Six civilians were killed when Ugandan soldiers opened fire on a
Congolese passenger boat on Lake Albert.
(AFP, 9/25/07)(Reuters, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 25, The World Health
Organization said 8 more cases of Ebola have been identified in
Congo, raising to 17 the number of people confirmed to have
contracted the deadly illness.
2007 Oct 4, In Congo a cargo
plane crashed in a residential neighborhood near the main airport in
Kinshasa, plowing into homes and killing at least 52 people. The
next day Congolese President Joseph Kabila sacked Transport Minister
Remy Henri Kuseyo Gatanga.
(AP, 10/4/07)(Reuters, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 11, Rebel leader
Laurent Nkunda in eastern Congo called for a cease-fire as the army
said the death toll from five days of clashes had risen to 122.
2007 Oct 14, Opiyo Makasi,
reported to be an operations and logistics commander of Uganda's
Lord's Resistance Army, gave himself up along with his wife and they
were transferred to Kinshasa, DRC. On Oct 25 Congolese authorities
handed him to the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC), which
should prepare his eventual return to Uganda.
(AP, 10/23/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 18,
Former Congolese warlord Germain Katanga, suspected of war
crimes committed in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003,
began his transfer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
2007 Oct 22,
The United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) said some 8,000
Congolese refugees have fled to neighboring Uganda following clashes
between Congo's army and dissident general Laurent Nkunda.
2007 Oct 22,
Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga became only the
second war crimes suspect to appear before the International
Criminal Court at The Hague.
2007 Oct 25, Rebels in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo set new conditions for disarming,
stalling the surrender of hundreds of fighters who have begun
massing near a designated UN camp.
2007 Oct 26, In Congo heavy
rains swelled into a torrent of water that swamped Kinshasa, killing
30 people in less than 24 hours.
2007 Oct 27, Mai Mai militia
leader and army deserter Kibamba Kasereka said he had surrendered to
the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo's
restive Nord-Kivu province, agreeing to calls to disarm his forces.
2007 Nov 5, In eastern Congo 27
UN peacekeepers from India were injured when attacked by a mob of
hungry civilians who claimed not to have received any food aid.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.54)
2007 Nov 13, Thousands of
refugees fled camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's
violent North Kivu province after the army said Tutsi-dominated
insurgents attacked its positions nearby.
2007 Nov 17, The UN children's
agency said aid groups in Congo have secured the release of 232
child soldiers from militia fighters who forcibly recruited them in
the east of the country. The 232 children, whose average age is 14,
were separated this month in the eastern provinces of North and
South Kivu from three different factions of the Mai Mai.
2007 Nov 20, It was reported
that Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain
forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is
the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security
Council welcomed a deal signed by Congo and Rwanda to forcibly
disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo in an effort to reduce tensions
between the central African neighbors.
2007 Nov 22, The UN resumed the
repatriation of 12,000 Congolese refugees from Zambia which was
suspended three months ago due to insecurity in the Democratic
Republic of Congo's (DRC) Katanga province.
2007 Nov 23, Explosions and
machine-gun fire echoed through the hills of east Congo, where
government troops battled rebels for a third day amid a deepening
humanitarian crisis the UN says has displaced nearly 200,000 people
in the past few months.
2007 Dec 3, In Congo (DRC) some
25,000 government forces army attacked a stronghold of renegade
Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, a day after his men seized a strategic
town from the government and forced out thousands of civilians. The
troops were routed by some 4,000 insurgents.
2007 Dec 5, Congo's army said
it retook a strategic town on from rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi
General Laurent Nkunda in the violence-torn eastern province of
2007 Dec 5, An international
aid organization said Angolan soldiers routinely and repeatedly rape
Congolese women who have crossed the border illegally in search of
work in the diamond fields.
2007 Dec 14, Diplomats from the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda met in Kampala to discuss
border tensions that have triggered deadly clashes on one of
Africa's hottest frontiers in the search for oil. The UN said rival
factions in Congo are forcibly recruiting hundreds of children and
sending them to fight on the front lines of an escalating conflict
in the east of the country.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 19, Uganda's military
said it had shot dead two Congolese soldiers on the volatile border
between the two countries, after they tried to resist being arrested
on suspicion of raping two teenage girls.
2007 Dec 21, The Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in
Congo for a year and demanded that all militias and armed groups in
the volatile east lay down their weapons and start disarming.
2007 Dec 24, The international
charity Save the Children said boys and girls are being recruited in
record numbers to act as soldiers, spies and sex slaves in Congo and
children have been spotted marching in formation in the war-wracked
east of the country over the past week.
2007 Congo’s operating budget
for this year was $2.4 billion. Its population stood at about 60
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.46)
2007 Transparency Int’l. ranked
Congo 168th out of 179 countries for freedom from corruption.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.13)
2008 Jan 6, In Kinshasa a peace
summit aimed at ending fighting in Congo's blood-steeped eastern
provinces of North and South Kivu opened without the presence of
President Joseph Kabila and rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda.
2008 Jan 13, Delegation chief
Kambasu Ngeze said at a Congolese peace conference that renegade
general Laurent Nkunda's Kivu movement vowed to continue its armed
struggle "with neither remorse nor regret."
2008 Jan 21, Officials said
Congo government negotiators and rebel groups reached a deal to end
fighting in the vast country's restive east, where some 800,000
people had to flee their homes over the last year.
2008 Jan 22, A new survey said
war, disease and malnutrition are killing 45,000 Congolese every
month in a conflict-driven humanitarian crisis that has claimed 5.4
million victims in nearly a decade.
2008 Jan 23, Militia leaders
signed a peace accord with Congo's government aimed at ending years
of fighting in the country's restive east.
2008 Jan 27, At least 10 bodies
were recovered after a boat capsized on Lake Tanganyika in eastern
Congo. An official later said the overloaded boat was piloted by a
2008 Jan 28, Congolese Tutsi
rebels and Mai Mai militia clashed in eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo, breaking a ceasefire signed last week aimed at ending A
long-running conflict in the east.
2008 Jan 29, Congolese Tutsi
rebels and a rival Mai Mai militia group pledged to respect a
recently-signed peace accord, a day after clashes between their
fighters broke the ceasefire.
2008 Feb 3, Two strong
earthquake shook the African Great Lakes region, killing at least 37
people in Rwanda and six in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 2/3/08)(AFP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 6, Congo arrested and
turned over for trial Mathieu Ngudjolo, an army colonel and former
rebel leader accused of leading a deadly 2003 attack on a village in
the country's lawless east. Ngudjolo was expected to arrive at the
International Criminal Court in the Hague the next day.
2008 Mar 15, Congo’s foreign
debt stood at $12 billion and interest payments consumed a large
chunk of its budget.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.12)
2008 Mar 19, Conservationists
said Honore Mashagiro, a ranger in Congo's Virunga National Park,
has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the massacre last
summer of 10 endangered mountain gorillas.
2008 Mar 19, Uganda said that
Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony has left his base in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and moved to the Central
2008 Mar 21, The Democratic
Republic of Congo banned the ethnic-based religious and political
sect Bundu dia Kongo (BDK), a shadowy separatist sect, following a
3-week police offensive against its western strongholds which UN
investigators say killed dozens of people.
2008 Apr 15, In eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 44 people were killed and up
tot 100 injured when a passenger plane crashed onto a market
district after taking-off at Goma.
(Reuters, 4/16/08)(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 29, The International
Criminal Court in The Hague published an arrest warrant for Bosco
Ntaganda (35), known as "the Terminator," a Congo militia leader
wanted for allegedly using child soldiers.
2008 May 23, UN peacekeepers
found over 100 bodies in three mass graves in the east of Democratic
Republic of Congo. A UN spokesman said they apparently were graves
dating back to the 1990s, but that is was difficult to know
2008 May 24, Belgian police in
Brussels arrested Jean-Pierre Bemba (45), a Congolese warlord and
ex-presidential candidate, after he was secretly charged with rape
and torture. Bemba was accused of war crimes and crimes against
humanity as head of a militia that allegedly committed atrocities in
Central African Republic's conflict in 2002-2003.
2008 May 26, A small faction of
Rwandan Hutu rebels in east Democratic Republic of Congo pledged to
lay down their guns and return home, but the main rebel movement
refused and rejected the ceremony as a sham.
2008 Jun 7, Congo President
Joseph Kabila met with UN envoys who backed his plans to disarm and
expel Rwandan rebels behind years of strife. They also planned to
refocus the biggest UN peace force on rebuilding the shattered
2008 Jun 16, A conservation
group said the northern white rhino of central Africa was on the
verge of being wiped out. 4 surviving specimens in Congo’s Garamba
National Park had not been seen since 2006.
(SFC, 6/17/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 3, Former Congolese
rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba arrived in the Netherlands to face
war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court.
2008 Jul 7, In Congo (DRC)
unidentified gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to the World
Wildlife Fund in Virunga national Park, killing two people and
wounding three others.
2008 Jul 23, In Democratic
Republic of Congo at least 45 people were killed and another 100
were missing after a boat sank on a remote stretch of the Ubangi
2008 Jul 28, Antoine Wendo
Kolosoy (aka Papa Wendo, b.1925), Congolese riverboat mechanic,
boxer and rumba singer, died at age 82. He cut his first records in
1947 for Olympia, a Belgian label.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.84)
2008 Aug 5, Wildlife
researchers said they have discovered some 125,000 western lowland
gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo.
(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 13, The Indian army
said that it was investigating UN allegations its troops had engaged
in sexual abuse while on peacekeeping duties in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. A five-story building in a crowded residential
neighborhood of Mumbai, India's main financial city, collapsed after
monsoon rains, killing at least 20 people.
2008 Aug 28, Government forces
fought Tutsi rebels in the fiercest clashes for months in eastern
Congo, threatening a struggling peace process.
2008 Sep 1, In east Democratic
Republic of Congo a humanitarian plane carrying 17 passengers and
crew crashed into a mountain with no sign of survivors.
2008 Sep 11, A Paris court
convicted Didier Bourguet, a former UN employee, for the rape of
young Africans during his postings in Central African Republic and
Congo. Bourguet was sentenced to nine years in prison for having
committed about 20 rapes of teenage girls between 1998 and 2004
during his postings as a mechanic for the UN.
2008 Sep 14, In eastern Congo a
riot ensued following accusations that a soccer player was using
witchcraft. 13 people were left dead.
(SFC, 9/16/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 27, It was reported
that the elephant population in Congo’s Virunga National Park had
dropped to under 200, mostly due to poaching. In 1964 there were an
estimated 2,900. In 2006 the number had dropped to 400.
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.62)
2008 Oct 7, The UN refugee
agency said at least 5,000 people have fled violence in northeastern
Congo and sought shelter in neighboring Sudan over the last two
weeks due to ferocious attacks by rebels of the Lord's Resistance
Army from neighboring Uganda.
2008 Oct 10, Congo's President
Joseph Kabila named Budget Minister Adolphe Muzito (51) as the new
prime minister following the resignation of 83-year-old Antoine
2008 Oct 10, The UN urged Congo
and Rwanda to hold talks to avoid a war after Kinshasa accused its
eastern neighbor of sending troops over the border to back Congolese
2008 Oct 14, The UN said
intense fighting between the Congolese army and Ugandan rebels have
forced over 50,000 people to flee their homes in the north-eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ituri region.
2008 Oct 24, The World Food
Program said fighting in eastern Congo has driven some 200,000 from
their homes during the last 8 weeks, exacerbating an already dire
2008 Oct 26, Rebels seized an
east Congo army base and the headquarters of a refuge housing some
of the world's last mountain gorillas, in heavy fighting that sent
thousands of civilians fleeing. An unknown number of soldiers,
rebels and civilians were killed in the renewed fighting in North
2008 Oct 27, Thousands of
civilians threw rocks at four UN offices in eastern Congo, venting
outrage at the organization's inability to protect them from rebel
forces advancing on the provincial capital of Goma.
2008 Oct 28, Rebels vowing to
take Congo's eastern provincial capital of 600,000 people advanced
toward Goma as Congolese troops and UN tanks retreated, while tens
of thousands fled to a makeshift shelter.
2008 Oct 29, Congolese rebel
forces advanced on the eastern city of Goma, threatening to
overwhelm government troops and a 17,000-strong UN force deployed to
halt a return to all-out war. The Congolese army said troops from
Rwanda have crossed the nearby border and attacked its soldiers in
support of a minority Tutsi rebellion. Congolese rebels declared a
ceasefire after a four-day push to the gates of Goma that threatened
to drag Congo back to all-out war, but heavy gunfire resumed near
the eastern city after dark.
(Reuters, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, Laurent Nkunda,
the rebel general besieging Congo's eastern provincial capital Goma,
said he wants direct talks with the government about ending fighting
in the region and his objections to a $5 billion deal that gives
China access to the country's vast mineral riches in exchange for a
railway and highway. Nkunda said he sent a letter to the UN
peacekeeping mission in Goma saying he will set up an "urgent
humanitarian corridor" for refugees and humanitarian aid. Refugees
have continued fleeing the war-torn eastern province for neighboring
(AP, 10/30/08)(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 31, Thousands of
war-weary refugees set out on foot for their homes in eastern Congo,
taking advantage of a cease-fire as American and UN envoys joined
efforts there to find a political solution to the region's
2008 Nov 1, Tutsi-led rebels
tightened their hold on newly seized swaths of eastern Congo,
forcing tens of thousands of frightened, rain-soaked civilians out
of makeshift refugee camps and stopping some from fleeing to
government-held territory. Congolese soldiers killed nine fighters
from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) after 30-50 rebels
attacked a village in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AP, 11/2/08)(AFP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 4, Congolese rebel
leader Laurent Nkunda threatened to take his eastern guerrilla war
westwards to the capital Kinshasa unless the government agreed to
talks on the country's future. Congo's government refused rebel
leader Laurent Nkunda's demand for direct talks.
(Reuters, 11/4/08)(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Congo heavy
fighting erupted for a second day between rebels and a
pro-government militia in lawless North Kivu province, but a wider
cease-fire was holding around this provincial capital. In Kiwanja
fighters loyal to rebel General Laurent Nkunda drove out
pro-government Mai-Mai militia, sending its inhabitants fleeing in
panic. A local clergyman said at least 180 civilians had been killed
overnight. The next day UN peacekeepers found the bodies of a dozen
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.61)
2008 Nov 7, The UN
secretary-general joined African leaders to try to end the fighting
in eastern Congo, where a fragile cease-fire is close to collapse. A
UN official and a peacekeeping officer said Angolan troops are
fighting alongside Congolese soldiers battling rebels outside the
eastern provincial capital of Goma. The UN official said an
unspecified number of Angolans arrived four days ago.
2008 Nov 7, India said it will
send one of its most decorated army units to join a UN mission in
Congo and support other Indian troops as Congolese rebels advance to
seize fresh areas.
2008 Nov 8, Congolese soldiers
advanced toward rebel lines in renewed fighting that threatens a
tenuous cease-fire around the eastern provincial capital Goma.
2008 Nov 9, Doctors struggled
to contain an outbreak of cholera in a sprawling refugee camp near
Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, as new fighting ignited
fears that infected patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.
2008 Nov 11, The UN reported
that hundreds of Congolese soldiers rampaged through several
villages in eastern Congo raping women and pillaging homes as they
pulled back ahead of a feared rebel advance.
(SFC, 11/12/08, p.A7)
2008 Nov 12, Angola announced
it is mobilizing troops to send to neighboring Congo, heightening
fears that the fighting in this central African nation will engulf
other countries in the region. North of Kibati the bodies of two
dead government soldiers lay in the center of the road beside a
2008 Nov 16, Congo's main rebel
leader promised a UN envoy to support a cease-fire and UN efforts to
end the fighting, and the diplomat said he hoped the warring sides
would hold peace talks in Kenya. Congo government troops abandoned
their position at Rwindi, 130 km (80 miles) north of Goma in North
Kivu province, after a battle with the rebels involving small arms
and heavier weapons. UN peacekeeping troops at Rwindi stayed in
their base during the fighting.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, Demoralized
Congolese government troops, retreating before eastern rebels,
clashed with their own local militia allies who tried to make them
stand and fight after the armed forces chief was replaced.
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to send some 3,000 additional UN
peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent
a new war in the country's east.
2008 Nov 20, Britain called on
Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese
rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2008 Nov 21, In eastern Congo
armed men shot and killed a 20-year-old woman at the Kibati refugee
camp where thousands of displaced people live in constant fear,
caught between soldiers and rebels. Armed men also forced families
there out of their huts and looted them. Didace Namujimbo, a
journalist working for a UN-backed radio station, was shot dead in
(AP, 11/21/08)(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 22, Congolese rebel
leader Laurent Nkunda sought to reassure people in territory
recently seized in a lightning advance, telling thousands gathered
in Rutshuru for his first mass rally that his men intend to bring
peace, not war, to Congo. A rebel offensive under Nkunda began to
push some 1,500 Hutu FDLR militiamen from Ishasha. The move forced
over 3,000 civilians to flee to neighboring Uganda.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/27/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 22, In eastern Congo 2
mass graves containing as many as 2,000 bodies were discovered in
Bukavu on a plot of land formerly owned by a member of the Congolese
Rally for Democracy (RCD), a Rwandan-backed rebel group. The RCD
became a political party in 2003. Many of its top leaders were
integrated into the government, taking jobs as vice presidents and
2008 Nov 23, Congolese soldiers
stopped a peacekeepers' convoy at an impromptu roadblock and dragged
23 Congolese men off the trucks, accusing them of being rebels. UN
officials said the men were rebels who had surrendered as well as
national policemen and civilians.
2008 Nov 24, Congolese soldiers
went on an overnight looting and shooting spree in a sprawling
Congolese refugee camp, stealing from hungry and traumatized people
who have fled fighting in the country's east.
2008 Nov 27, More than 10,000
Congolese civilians fled to Uganda in a matter of hours to escape
2008 Nov 28, Congo rebels
captured the border post of Ishasha in eastern Congo, increasing
their stranglehold over the region. At least 13,000 frightened
civilians have fled into Uganda over the last two days.
2008 Nov 30, Rebels in eastern
Congo pulled out of Ishasha, a town on the Ugandan border they
captured in fighting that forced 10,000 people to flee.
2008 Dec 8, Congolese rebels
opened peace negotiations with a government delegation in Nairobi in
their first direct talks on ending the conflict in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2008 Dec 12, A UN Security
Council panel said that Rwanda and Congo are fighting a proxy war by
aiding each other's enemies, a conclusion that could lead to
additional UN sanctions over the conflict in the central African
region. A UN report cited an advisor to Rwandan President Paul
Kagame and a member of the Congolese opposition, both wealthy
businessmen, as key financial backers of rebels in eastern DR Congo.
(AP, 12/12/08)(AFP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 14, Uganda, southern
Sudan and Congo launched an offensive against the Lord's Resistance
Army bases based in eastern Congo in an attempt to end one of the
continent's longest and most brutal wars.
2008 Dec 21, Congolese Tutsi
rebels threatened to advance into UN-monitored buffer zones in
eastern Congo after refusing to sign a declaration ending
hostilities with the government.
2008 Dec 26, A Chinese man and
two Lebanese nationals were shot dead in a crime wave in
southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo that also left 10
Congolese dead this week. The mayor of Lubumbashi, Marie-Gregoire
Tambila, said that 11 people had been killed in the last four days
in her city, including a Lebanese national who was killed on
Christmas day. In eastern Congo attackers, identified as members of
the Lord’s Resistance Army, killed some 100 people at a church in
Doruma. The UN said rebels had killed 189 people over 2 days.
(AFP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/30/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 30, Congo’s health
minister said An Ebola virus outbreak has killed 11 people in
western Congo. Caritas, a Catholic charity, reported that over 400
people have been killed in northeaster Congo since Christmas day.
(AP, 12/30/08)(SFC, 12/31/08, p.A3)
2008 In CongoDRC Col. Samy
Matumo, the commander of a renegade brigade, controlled the tin
operations in Bisie, North Kivu province. He and his men extorted,
taxed and appropriated as much as $80 million a year from mining
operations in the area.
(SSFC, 11/16/08, p.A21)
2008 Lisa F. Jackson (57),
American filmmaker, produced her 75-minute film: “The Greatest
Silence: Rape in the Congo.
(SFC, 4/5/08, p.E1)
2008 In CongoDRC some 16,000
new cases of sexual violence, 65% of them involving children, were
registered this year.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.54)
2009 Jan 2, Ugandan Lord's
Resistance Army rebels killed two wildlife rangers and six other
people in a remote national park in northeastern Congo.
2009 Jan 5, In eastern Congo
rival rebel chief of staff Bosco Ntaganda announced the dismissal of
Laurent Nkunda and has taken control of the CNDP rebel movement.
2009 Jan 8, In eastern Congo
Mai Mai militiamen attacked a group of seven rangers killing one in
a government-controlled sector in the far north of Virunga National
2009 Jan 12, War crimes
prosecutors in The Hague accused former Congolese vice president
Jean-Pierre Bemba of using systematic rape to terrorize civilians
suspected of supporting rebels during a bloody power struggle in
neighboring Central African Republic.
2009 Jan 16, In eastern Congo
the leader of a splinter rebel faction said his forces would stop
fighting the government and the two sides would work together to
battle Rwandan militias at the heart of the conflict. Ugandan
rebels, according to the UN, massacred 100 civilians in Tora, a
village in northeast Congo, the latest atrocity blamed on the
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 17, A human rights
groups said Ugandan rebels in eastern Congo have ruthlessly killed
at least 620 people in the past month, and vulnerable civilians in
the region desperately need protection. According to Ugandan troops,
the Lord's Resistance Army rebels set fire to a church in the
village of Tora. it was unclear how many people were killed.
(AP, 1/18/09)(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 20, Hundreds of
Rwandan troops rolled into the Democratic Republic of Congo to join
Congolese forces hunting Rwandan rebels operating there since 1994.
2009 Jan 22, Congolese and
Rwandan troops advanced on the headquarters of Tutsi rebel leader,
Laurent Nkunda, as Kinshasa used its neighbor to smother a rebellion
in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda arrested Congo rebel leader Laurent
Nkunda after he fled a joint operation launched by the armies of the
(AP, 1/22/09)(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 26, The armies of
Congo and Rwanda, battling together against Rwandan Hutu militiamen
in eastern Congo, clashed with fighters trying to retake a village
and killed 4 of them.
2009 Jan 26, In the Netherlands
the first-ever trial of the International Criminal Court began at
The Hague with Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia commander,
denying he committed war crimes by recruiting hundreds of child
soldiers to kill and rape.
2009 Jan 27, The UN refugee
agency said thousands of Congolese civilians have fled across the
border to South Sudan to escape rebels of the Lord's Resistance
2009 Jan 29, The first of more
than 6,000 Congolese rebels took part in a ceremony to integrate
their units into the regular army as part of a deal to end the
conflict in eastern DR Congo.
2009 Feb 13, A Congolese
military spokesman said more than 40 members of a Hutu militia
suspected of atrocities during Rwanda's 1994 genocide were killed in
an overnight air raid.
2009 Feb 25, Rwandan troops
began pulling out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a
controversial joint operation with Congolese troops against Rwandan
2009 Mar 15, Uganda began
withdrawing troops hunting brutal Lord's Resistance Army rebels in
neighboring Congo after the deadline for them to leave expired.
Felix Kulaigye, a Ugandan military spokesman, said the operation had
been a success, with around 100 rebels killed and more than 200
abductees rescued, and that Congo would continue the hunt.
2009 Mar 23, The Congolese
government signed a peace agreement with and a group known as CNDP,
which later gave rise to M23. The agreement failed to bring peace.
2009 Mar 26, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy visited Brazzaville and Kinshasa. During the
Kinshasa trip, given over in large part to regional political
issues, Areva signed an agreement with the government allowing the
company to prospect for and mine uranium.
2009 Mar, The IMF disbursed
nearly $200 million to boost the foreign-currency reserves of the
Democratic Republic of Congo and maintain macroeconomic stability.
(Econ, 4/18/09, p.54)
2009 Mar, In CongoDRC Thomas
Kwoyelo, a commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, was captured in
Garamba forest. In 2011 he faced a charges in Uganda.
2009 Apr 6, In Zambia western
nations and lending agencies meeting in Lusaka agreed a financing
package of more than $1 billion to improve infrastructure in
southern and central Africa at an investment conference meant to
expand transport links and trade. Britain said it would separately
provide 100 million pounds ($149.2 million) to transform the
region's infrastructure to increase trade and mitigate the effects
of the global financial crisis. New projects will link businesses in
8 African countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
2009 Apr 9, A top human rights
group said in a report that at least 90 women have been raped and
180 villagers killed over the past two months by rebels as well as
government forces in volatile eastern Congo.
2009 Apr 29, A Boeing 737 on a
test flight from Brazzaville crashed southeast of Kinshasa, killing
2009 Apr, UN special
investigator Philip Alston said on October 15 that Congolese
soldiers had killed 50 Rwandan Hutu refugees and abducted and raped
around 40 women during an April attack on a refugee camp in eastern
2009 May 10, In the eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 60 people were killed over the
last 48 hours during attacks blamed on Rwandan Hutu rebels.
2009 May 18, UN military
commanders told top UN officials that Congolese rebels integrated
into the country's army as part of a peace deal are looting, raping
and killing the civilians they are meant to protect.
2009 May 19, The UN Security
Council said that it had asked the Congolese government to
investigate and arrest five high-ranking army officers known to have
2009 May, In CongoDRC 2 former
Norwegian soldiers (Tjostolv Moland and Joshua French) allegedly
murdered their driver and attempted to murder a witness. The motive
behind the killing was unknown. On Sep 8 they were convicted of
espionage and murder. In 2010 a military judge threw out the ruling
and ordered a new case. In August, 2013, Tjostolv Moland (32), died
in prison. An autopsy report said he had hanged himself.
(AP, 12/4/09)(AFP, 9/8/09)(AP, 4/22/10)(AP,
2009 Jun 15, The Hague-based
International Criminal Court ordered former Congolese rebel warlord
Jean-Pierre Bemba to stand trial on charges of crimes against
humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape and pillaging.
2009 Jun 19, A top Congo army
officer said 32 people have been killed in three days of fighting in
eastern Congo between government soldiers and Rwandan Hutu rebels
backed by Congolese militia allies.
2009 Jun 22, In Democratic
Republic of Congo rioting inmates overnight raped around 20 female
prisoners during a failed prison break in Goma. Two people were
killed and 12 others were injured when prisoners detonated two
2009 Jun 26, A UN official said
Ugandan rebels this year have killed around 1,200 Congolese
civilians and abducted 1,500, mostly children, in a remote region of
2009 Jul 20, In eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 24 people, most of them
civilians, were killed when rebels attacked an army base.
2009 Jul 24, The UN refugee
agency said 536,000 people have been chased from their homes in
eastern Congo this year as a result of clashes between government
forces and rebels linked to neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
2009 Jul 27, A Congo government
spokesman said The Democratic Republic of Congo has suspended
transmission of French broadcaster Radio France International (RFI).
2009 Aug 1, Humanitarian groups
said members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group,
have launched attacks against towns in the Central African Republic
that have left at least 10 people dead in the last two weeks. The
attacks by the LRA, launched from its rear bases in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, have also forced hundreds of people to flee their
2009 Aug 6, DR Congo President
Joseph Kabila met his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame in the
lakeside city of Goma for the first official bilateral talks between
the neighboring states in 13 years.
2009 Aug 10, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton arrived in the strife-torn Democratic Republic
of Congo on the fourth leg of her seven-nation African tour. Clinton
said she would press Democratic Republic of Congo's government to
address the root causes of the conflict in the east and stop the use
of women as "weapons of war."
2009 Aug 11, Authorities in the
Democratic Republic of Congo arrested Gregoire Ndahimana, a former
Rwandan mayor, for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide. Measures
were taken for him to be transferred to the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
2009 Aug 11, In Congo US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the Democratic
Republic of Congo to punish soldiers responsible for rape as she
toured the war-torn east. She also unveiled a $17 million plan to
help fight the sexual violence in eastern Congo.
(AFP, 8/11/09)(SFC, 8/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Sep 8, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo two Norwegians were sentenced to death by a court
for murdering a Congolese man in the northeast of the country in
2009 Sep 13, In southern
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 14 people were dead and
another 34 missing after their boat sank in an isolated stretch of
the Lualaba river.
2009 Oct 5, In Burundi 2 days
of clashes began as government forces fired live rounds in the air
to deter hundreds of Congolese refugees from returning home. Some
900 refugees had decided to return home on foot rather than be
transferred to a new camp further away from the border with
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2009 Oct 13, Activists from
Congo, Rene Ngongo (48), and New Zealand, Alyn Ware (47), and an
Ethiopia-based doctor from Australia, Catherine Hamlin (85), won the
Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "alternative Nobel," for
work to protect rain forests, improve women's health and rid the
world of nuclear weapons. The honorary part of the award, without
prize money, went to Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki (73) for
raising awareness of climate change. Each will receive euro50,000
2009 Oct 13, A report by a
coalition of 84 organizations said more than 1,000 civilians have
been killed and nearly 900,000 displaced in eastern Congo by Rwandan
Hutu militiamen and Congolese forces since January.
2009 Oct 14, The Democratic
Republic of Congo said it had agreed with Angola to halt tit-for-tat
expulsions of each other's citizens as victims told of being
subjected to brutal rapes and lootings when they were thrown out by
2009 Oct 28, The UN mission to
Congo (MONUC) said Congolese soldiers killed their unit commander
when he ordered them not to steal and pillage in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo. The men involved were former Mai-Mai militia
members from the Congolese Resistance Patriots movement (PARECO) who
recently became part of the army.
2009 Oct 29, In northern
Democratic Republic of Congo armed villagers killed at least 47
policemen trying to intervene in ethnic clashes.
2009 Oct 30, Congo's foreign
minister said India has offered Democratic Republic of Congo $263
million in loans to build hydroelectric plants and repair battered
infrastructure in the war-ravaged nation. The two countries agreed
to the final terms of the loan package this week during a four-day
visit by Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba to India.
2009 Oct, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo fighting broke out between two tribes, the Lobala
and the Bombona, in a dispute over rich fishing waters in Dongo, 200
km (125 miles) south of Gemena, the main town in the Sud-Oubangui
district. The clashes left some 270 people dead. A 600-strong unit
of commando reinforcements wrested back control of the Dongo region
on December 13.
2009 Nov 2, A top UN official
announced that the UN has withdrawn its support for Congolese army
units operating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, accusing
its soldiers of killing 62 civilians.
2009 Nov 3, Rwanda said it has
urged the UN to list the Rwandan Hutu rebel group operating in
eastern Congo as a terrorist organization.
2009 Nov 3, Senior Lord's
Resistance Army commander Charles Arop, who was implicated in
leading a massacre on Christmas Day that killed at least 143
Congolese, surrendered to the Ugandan military stationed in the
northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2009 Nov 8, The Democratic
Republic of Congo government said security forces in an overnight
raid on the town of Dongo have arrested about 100 armed men blamed
for killing dozens of policemen in an attack in the country's
isolated north last month.
2009 Nov 15, India's Essar
Group, and energy-to-steel conglomerate, said it has agreed to buy a
majority stake in Dhabi Group's telecommunication businesses in
African nations Uganda and Congo.
2009 Nov 17, Two leading
Rwandan Hutu rebels were arrested in Germany on suspicion of crimes
against humanity and war crimes this year and in 2008 in DR Congo.
The pair, Ignace Murwanashyaka (46) and Straton Musoni (48) are the
leader and deputy leader respectively of the Democratic Liberation
Forces of Rwanda. The FDLR is estimated to have 5,000 to 6,000
fighters, many of whom took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
before crossing into the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
2009 Nov 24, A report was
leaked on the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the CongoDRC, better
known as MONUC. The report alleged collusion between peacekeepers
and Congo’s army to help various rebel groups in exchange for cash
and access to mineral wealth.
2009 Nov 25, A United Nations
report confirmed that one of Africa's most brutal rebel movements
relies on a vast, international network of supporters in at least 25
countries including in the US and Europe who facilitate arms
trafficking, money transfers and day-to-day operational support. The
findings are a scathing indictment of how little has been done by
the international community to cut off logistical support to the
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic
Hutu militia which has wreaked havoc in Congo.
2009 Nov 25, In western
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 73 people were killed and
others missing after a logging boat sank in Lake Mai Ndombe in
2009 Nov 26, In the Congo four
UN peacekeepers were wounded in northern Congo after a UN helicopter
was attacked by armed men.
2009 Nov 27, In Congo DRC four
people died when a jail cell wall fell on them during an attempted
prison escape in Kinshasa.
2009 Dec 3, A Congolese court
upheld death sentences for two Norwegians convicted of espionage and
murder, prompting condemnation from Norwegian officials. They had
been convicted in Sep of murdering their driver and attempting to
murder a witness in May 2009.
2009 Dec 14, Human Rights Watch
said a UN-backed Congolese military operation to oust rebels from
eastern Congo has caused more civilian casualties than damage to
rebels, with more than 1,400 people deliberately killed over a
2009 Dec 14-2009 Dec 17, In
northeastern Congo at least 321 civilians were killed in a massacre
by the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army in the Makombo area. Villagers
that escaped their LRA captors were sent back with their lips and
ears cut off as a warning to others of what would happen if they
tried to talk. News of the massacre was not made public until March
2009 Dec 21, The UN accused the
Ugandan-based Lord's Resistance Army of killing, mutilating and
raping villagers in Sudan and Congo in what may have been crimes
2009 Dec 23, The UN Security
Council voted to renew the mandate of peacekeeping forces in Congo
by 5 months instead of the usual year amid plans to overhaul their
role in the war-torn country.
2009 Gerard Prunier authored
“Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of
a Continental Catastrophe."
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.88)
2009 In Kinshasa, Congo, the
music group Staff Benda Bilili, all victims of polio, released their
first album entitled “Tres, Tres Fort."
2009 CongoDRC nationalized
First Quantum, a Canada based company. A third of the company’s
profits had come its Congo mine.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.60)
2009 In CongoDRC forced
evictions and demolitions of hundreds of homes began near a copper
and cobalt mine in Katanga province and were carried out by
Enterprise General Malta Forrest, a subsidiary of the Belgian firm
Groupe Forrest International. A prosecutor investigated the
demolitions, but provincial officials and officials in Kinshasa,
ordered that no charges be filed. This was only made public by
Amnesty Int’l. in 2014.
2010 Jan 1, A Congolese army
officer said the Democratic Republic of Congo forces are to mount a
new offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country
with the backing of UN troops.
2010 Jan 10, In southeast Congo
6 people, including 5 children, died in a tin mine collapse. 2
people were left missing.
2010 Feb 15, Congo’s Radio
Okapi, a UN-run station, said Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed at
least 27 people in eastern Congo already this month.
2010 Feb 22, In eastern
CongoDRC 3 people were killed when Congolese soldiers attacked a UN
agency car and tried to loot it in South Kivu province. A
combination of military personnel from the US Special Operations
Command Africa, including US special forces and civilian specialists
under contract, were said to be conducting training a battalion of
Congolese soldiers in the city of Kisangani. The 8-month program for
the battalion, which can consist of about 1,000 soldiers, will cover
military basics but also will focus on human rights training. Human
rights groups have previously accused Congo's poorly trained and
irregularly paid army forces of attacking civilians.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 28, A UN-backed
military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo was launched. The operation will involve 18
battalions from the Congolese FARDC army in a series of targeted
attacks throughout north and south Kivu provinces in Congo's
2010 Feb, In northeast Congo up
to 100 people were killed about this time when the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army attacked a village. News of the massacre did not
become public until May 1 when UN humanitarian chief John Holmes
said he learned of the killings when he visited Niangara, the
nearest town which he reached by helicopter.
(AP, 5/2/10)(Reuters, 5/2/10)
2010 Mar 10, A UN official said
90 Rwandan rebels have been killed in eastern Congo during a
two-week Congolese army operation conducted with the support of UN
2010 Mar 17, The Congolese army
said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured
since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the
2010 Apr 4, In northern Congo
some 100-150 Enyele rebels attacked Mbandaka, capital of Congo's
northern Equateur province. A UN peacekeeper from Ghana was fatally
shot while in a car. A UN civilian and a South African pilot died
during the fighting. At least 36 people, including policemen, an
army officer and militiamen, died in the clashes between the Enyele
and Munzale tribesmen reportedly over farming and fishing rights.
(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/6/10)(Econ, 4/17/10, p.51)
2010 Apr 5, In northern Congo
UN-backed government forces retook the Mbandaka provincial airport
from rebels. In eastern Congo 2 soldiers shot and killed national
radio journalist Patient Chebeya Bakome. Bakome's brother said the
soldiers shot Bakome in front of his wife and took his phone and
money. Beni police arrested the 2 soldiers.
(AP, 4/5/10)(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, Innovation for the
Development and Protection of the Environment (IDPE) said that from
March 3-28 Congo government troops killed 7 hippos and 5 elephants
as well as five antelopes, four baboons, three chimpanzees and two
buffalo in Virunga national Park, a UNESCO world heritage. The
soldiers "use their wives and cousins to sell the meat" in villages
near the park, the IDPE said in a report that included photos of
decomposing elephant carcasses.
2010 Apr 9, In Congo 7
Congolese and one Swiss national, staff members of the Red Cross,
were seized near the town of Fizi in South Kivu province by the Mai
Mai Yakutumba rebels. The workers were released on April 16.
(AP, 4/13/10)(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 15, A new study by
Oxfam said the number of rapes carried out by civilians in eastern
Congo has increased by 17-fold in the last few years. It said sexual
assaults long perpetrated by armed groups are spreading across the
2010 May 5, Congo’s government
information minister said civilians who were being recruited to a
new rebel movement in Congo's northwest captured the group's leader
and he now will stand trial for war crimes. Odjani was captured by
youths he was trying to recruit in the village of Dongo. In eastern
Congo 80 people were missing and feared dead after an overloaded
canoe capsized on a river. 45 people were rescued from the Congo
River near the city of Kindu, the capital of Congo's eastern Maniema
2010 May 24, The UN said an
Indian UN peacekeeper and two Congolese nationals were killed in an
ambush in North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
2010 May 27, UN experts said
rebel groups in eastern Congo are illegally imposing taxes on trucks
and pedestrians and receiving local, regional and international
support in violation of UN sanctions.
2010 May 28, The UN, bowing to
pressure from Congo's President Joseph Kabila, agreed to withdraw up
to 2,000 peacekeeping troops and redefine the remaining force as a
"stabilization" mission in his nation to coincide with its 50th
anniversary of independence.
2010 Jun 2, In CongoDRC the
body of Floribert Chebeya Bahizire of Voix des Sans Voix, or Voice
of the Voiceless, was found in his car in a suburb of Kinshasa. The
next day Navi Pillay, the top UN human rights official said the
victim had suffered a pattern of intimidation because of his work.
For the past two decades, Voix des Sans Voix had worked to document
human rights abuses across Congo, focusing on corruption in the
military and foreign support for militias. On June 4 several police
officers were arrested as part of a preliminary investigation into
the death of Bahizire.
(AP, 6/3/10)(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 10, A Congo military
court sentenced to death a British-Norwegian national and a
Norwegian convicted of espionage and murder. Joshua French, the dual
national, and Tjostolv Moland, both former Norwegian soldiers, were
convicted last year of murdering their driver and attempting to
murder a witness. The alleged motive is unknown. A lawyer said the
two witnesses who testified against them were awarded large sums of
money in compensation and have changed their stories countless
2010 Jun 29, Congolese Gen.
Amuli Bahigwa said the army has killed 80 rebels from neighboring
Rwanda and Uganda who crossed into volatile eastern Congo. Bahigwa
said the army killed the rebels in an operation that started June 1.
He said four soldiers were killed and that Ugandan rebels killed
2010 Jun 29, Uganda’s
Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye confirmed the ADF are attacking a
Congolese town called Mutwanga and have killed 16 civilians. The
Allied Democratic Forces, a group that claims it is fighting for
equality for Muslims, battled Ugandan forces in country's Rwenzori
region near the DRC, with the heaviest fighting occurring between
1996 and 2001.
2010 Jul 2, In eastern Congo a
fuel tanker overturned and burst into flames, sparking a massive
fire that killed at least 230 villagers and wounded more than 200 —
some of whom had rushed to siphon leaking liquid from the vehicle
(AP, 7/3/10)(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.A5)(SFC, 7/5/10,
2010 Jul 8, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague suspended Congolese militia chief Thomas
Lubanga's trial and rapped prosecutors for abusing court processes
and ignoring judges' orders.
2010 Jul 24, Congolese rebels
took an Indian pilot hostage when they attacked an aircraft on a
remote airstrip in a tin mining zone in the country's North Kivu
2010 Jul 26, Campaign group
Global Witness said it was launching legal action against the
British government for allegedly failing to refer companies trading
Congolese "conflict minerals" for UN sanctions.
2010 Jul 27, In CongoDRC a boat
ferrying about 200 passengers to Kinshasa capsized after hitting a
rock. As many as 138 people were killed with 80 confirmed dead.
2010 Jul 30, In eastern
CongoDRC rebels from the Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu FDLR
occupied Luvungi town, North Kivu, one day after beginning an attack
there. Over the next 4 days they gang-raped scores of women. The
rebels withdrew voluntarily on Aug 4. Later reports said there were
over 500 systematic rapes.
(AP, 8/23/10)(Reuters, 9/1/10)(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Aug 11, In CongoDRC around
40 people were killed when an overloaded truck laden with passengers
plowed into Lake Tanganyika, Africa's deepest lake.
2010 Aug 18, In the Democratic
of Republic of Congo 3 Indian UN peacekeepers were killed in a
surprise attack on their base by 50 fighters armed with machetes,
spears and traditional weapons. The next day Congolese soldiers
arrested two suspects in the killing of the Indian
(Reuters, 8/18/10)(AFP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 25, Police in
northeastern Congo said they have seized 116 elephant tusks and
arrested two men following a truck crash.
2010 Aug 25, In western Congo a
passenger plane, operated by local airliner FILAIR, crashed, killing
19 people. Police said there were two survivors.
2010 Aug, In CongoDRC rebel
militants raped some 240 people over 4 days in the Walikale district
of eastern Congo. At least 387 people were raped in the Walikale
territory in late July and early, including men, children and a
month-old baby boy. In 2011 survivors suffered reprisals and a
judicial inquiry into the violence was suspended.
(Econ, 1/15/11, p.64)(AP, 7/6/11)
2010 Sep 1, Gunmen in eastern
Congo fired on a private plane carrying international aid workers
who escaped into the forest. The aid workers were rescued later in
the day by peacekeepers. A Congolese soldier and two militiamen were
killed in the firefight. 2 pilots in another plane were captured
after an attack by Mai Mai and Rwandan Hutu rebels shortly after
landing at Kilambo. The pilots and 2 injured people were released on
(AP, 9/1/10)(AP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 4, In southern Congo
at least 200 people were feared dead after a boat engine caught fire
and led the vessel to overturn on the Kasai River. Survivors who
swam to safety said nearby fishermen refused to help drowning
passengers in the dark of night, instead looting the goods aboard
the burning vessel and beating people with oars. Earlier the same
day, a boat on a river in northwest Equateur Province hit a rock and
capsized. More than 70 people were believed dead among 100 estimated
(AP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 7, Police in
southeastern Congo say they have arrested three men carrying six
suitcases full of elephant tusks. 3 Chinese nationals were caught at
Lumumbashi's airport while trying to fly to Nairobi, Kenya. The men
said they bought the ivory from antique dealers.
2010 Sep 8, Congo’s President
Joseph Kabila ordered the indefinite suspension near the mining hub
of Walikale, where more than 240 people were treated for rape last
2010 Sep 11, Congo’s President
Joseph Kabila extended indefinite mining suspensions to three more
provinces in the volatile east.
2010 Sep 11, In Sudan a rare
three-day meeting of 30 religious and community leaders as well as
local government officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), south Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Uganda
criticized the "lack of a coordinated and comprehensive strategy" to
tackle the LRA rebels.
2010 Sep 29, In CongoDRC Armand
Tungulu (30), a Congolese citizen living in Belgium, was taken into
custody by Pres. Kabila's bodyguards after he threw rocks at the
presidential motorcade. Witnesses said the guards beat Tungulu
before arresting him. On Oct 4 a statement from the Congolese
attorney general's office said Tungulu killed himself on the night
of Oct 1 with a piece of cloth he had been using as a pillow. On
October 14 the DR Congo refused to return to Belgium the body of a
(AP, 10/4/10)(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 1, The UN released its
545-page report into mass killings in Congo over a ten-year period.
Rwanda and Uganda insisted the $3 million report is flawed and could
harm security in Africa's volatile Great Lakes region.
2010 Oct 5, Fellow rebels
handed over Congolese commander Sadoke Kokunda Mayele. He was
arrested for allegedly leading fighters in the mass gang-rapes of
more than 300 people from July 30 to August 2.
2010 Oct 7, In eastern Congo
children in Burinyi village found an unexploded grenade on their way
to fetch water from a well. 5 children died when it detonated as
they were playing with it.
2010 Oct 14, Margot Wallstrom,
the UN special representative for sexual violence in armed conflict,
told the 15-nation Security Council that a man known as "Colonel
Serafim" was among those believed to be responsible for the rape of
over 300 people. She also said Congolese government troops are
raping, killing and looting civilians in the same area of eastern
Congo where militias carried out mass rapes over two months ago.
(AP, 10/14/10)(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 15, Roger Meece, heads
of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, said more than 15,000
people were raped in the volatile eastern region of Congo last year,
according to the best data available.
2010 Oct 15, Adrian Edwards,
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the rebels of the Lord's
Resistance Army have killed at least 2,000 people and forced 400,000
to flee in three countries in less than two years. A UNHCR
communique documented a mounting "campaign of terror against
civilians" in the DR Congo, South Sudan and the CAR.
2010 Oct 17, Congo's first
lady, Olive Lembe Kabila, led thousands of women marching in the
country's volatile east to demand an end to a wave of mass rapes. 3
residents were killed when soldiers looted homes in Congo's South
(AP, 10/17/10)(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 21, In CongoDRC a
small plane was owned by a local airliner Starec Congo crashed into
a gorilla park in eastern Congo killing its pilot and co-pilot. It
was carrying some 3,300 pounds (1,500 kg) of commercial goods.
2010 Oct 23, In Belgium police
and demonstrators opposed to President Joseph Kabila of the
Democratic Republic of Congo clashed in Brussels during a protest
over the Oct 1 death in jail of Armand Tungulu, a visitng Congolese
dissident who lived in Belgium.
2010 Oct 24, In CongoDRC
militia attacked a UN base near Virunga National Park. Some 100
attackers were members of the shadowy Mai Mai militia. Peacekeepers
killed 8 militiamen.
2010 Oct 26, The UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said at least 30
women were kept as prisoners in a dungeon-like structure and
gang-raped over multiple weeks at the Congo and Angola border before
being left in the bush without their clothes. The deportees said
they were held by Angolan authorities in a dingy building. At least
three were killed, including two men and a woman (27) who died after
being raped repeatedly.
2010 Oct 27, US officials said
the Obama administration has granted a waiver allowing Chad,
CongoDRC, Sudan and Yemen to continue receiving US military aid
despite their use of child soldiers. Officials said cutting off aid
would do more damage than good.
(SFC, 10/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 6, United Nations
officials said they were investigating reports that some 700
Congolese women were sexually attacked along the country's border
with Angola. Many women had said Angolan soldiers were responsible
for their attacks.
2010 Nov 8, In south-central
Congo at least 42 people were killed when a truck overturned on the
country's poorly maintained roads. 16 children were among the dead
from the crash in Kasai-Oriental province.
2010 Nov 17, In eastern Congo
Rwandan Hutu rebels attacked a truck, killing at least three people
and wounding several others. UN-run Radio Okapi earlier reported the
rebels killed 21 people in the attack in the heavily forested
Walikale territory, but a UN spokeswoman said peacekeepers on patrol
in the area confirmed only three dead.
2010 Nov 19, In the Republic of
Congo 8 countries signed a convention to limit the spread of weapons
in central Africa, but three countries opted out. Angola, Cameroon,
the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Gabon, The Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe all
signed. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda did not sign.
2010 Nov 29, The United Nations
released a report saying armed groups in volatile eastern Congo,
including the army, have bypassed international efforts at reform
and have instead formed criminal networks to exploit the nation's
2010 Dec 1, The UN named 3
Rwandan rebel leaders and a Congolese military officer, suspected of
recruiting child soldiers and other abuses, on its worldwide travel
ban and assets freeze aimed at stemming widespread violence in
2010 Dec 7, Hendrik Coetzee
(35), an acclaimed South African outdoorsman, was dragged from his
craft by a crocodile on the Lukuga River in Congo. 2 Americans
watched, horrified, and paddled to safety. Coetzee was leading a
kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo.
2010 Dec 10, UNICEF said a
polio outbreak in CongoDRC has caused over 200 deaths. Most of those
affected were young men between the ages of 15 and 24.
(SFC, 12/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Claus Wischmann and
Martin Baer produced the documentary “Kinshasa Symphony" in which
they followed Armand Diangienda and the Orchestre Symphonique
Kimbanguiste in Kinshasa as they prepared for a concert of
Beethoven’s ninth symphony.
2010 Some 100,000 Twa pygmies
remained in the Great Lakes region of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and
CongoDRC. Most of them were barred from their ancestral forests
including the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which was turned into a
national park in 1991.
(Econ, 9/25/10, SR p.11)
2011 Jan 1, In CongoDRC at
least 67 women were raped in South and North Kivu provinces,
including a teen-ager and two pregnant women. On Jan 21 Congo
arrested Lt. Colonel Kibibi Mutwara, a senior army commander accused
of ordering the rapes in Fizi. The arrest followed the detention of
10 other soldiers earlier in the week. On July 22, 2011, a UN report
said investigators found at least 47 women were subjected to rape
and other sexual assaults from Dec. 31, 2010, to Jan. 1, 2011 in an
isolated and mountainous area of North Kivu province.
(Reuters, 1/25/11)(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jan 22, The Rwandan army
said its former chief of staff and an ex-spy chief, both exiled in
South Africa, have formed a rebel group operating in neighboring
Democratic Republic of Congo. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and Patrick
Karegeya and two other former top officials, also in exile, were
last week sentenced to heavy jail terms for threatening state
2011 Jan 24, In CongoDRC’s
Virunga National Park an attack killed three park rangers and five
Congolese soldiers. Officials believed the attackers, who fled on
foot, were Rwandan-led Hutu rebels who retaliated after rangers
destroyed two of their camps in the park in December.
2011 Feb 2, In CongoDRC at
least 14 people were killed and around 20 injured when a goods train
derailed in Western Kasai province.
2011 Feb 3, Authorities in
Congo arrested four foreigners, an American, a Frenchman and two
Nigerians, suspected of planning to smuggle millions of dollars of
gold out of the country's lawless east. Army general Bosco Ntaganda,
wanted by the ICC for recruiting child soldiers, received $6.5
million in cash for the gold, over 400kg, which was seized.
(Reuters, 2/7/11)(Econ, 2/12/11, p.54)
2011 Feb 14, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo a small plane used to deliver World Food Program
aid crashed in Bukavu, killing its Russian pilot and his Congolese
2011 Feb 21, In CongoDRC a
mobile military court convicted army Lt. Col. Mutuare Daniel Kibibi
(46) of crimes against humanity, a landmark verdict in this Central
African country where aid groups say thousands are brutally raped
each year and where impunity prevails for the soldiers and militia
groups who terrorize civilians. 3 of Kibibi's officers received the
same sentences, and 5 others got lesser sentences. 49 women who
testified about the New Year attacks in Fizi were to receive up to
$10,000 each in compensation from the government as part of the
2011 Feb 25, UN officials said
at least 40 people have been raped in eastern areas of the
Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 2 weeks.
(SFC, 2/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 27, In CongoDRC
assailants armed with machetes attacked the presidential residence
in Kinshasa. At least 7 attackers and 2 guards were killed.
President Kabila was not at home at the time. Congolese later picked
up 126 suspects in what they say was a multi-pronged attack that
centered on Congo's presidential palace in which 19 people were
(AP, 2/27/11)(SFC, 2/28/11, p.A2)(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Apr 4, In CongoDRC a UN
plane crashed while attempting to land at the airport serving
Kinshasa, killing 32 UN officials and peacekeepers. One survivor was
2011 Apr 18, In CongoDRC at
least 23 people died when a truck crashed into an area where young
girls were collecting water outside the eastern city of Goma.
2011 Apr 25, In eastern Congo a
boat owner said 72 people are missing after his boat capsized on
Lake Kivu, possibly because of bad weather and high winds.
2011 Apr 26, Congolese
children's rights activist Murhabazi Namegabe was named winner of
the $100,000 World Children's Prize for his efforts to protect
children exploited by armed groups in the African country. The award
foundation based in Mariefred, Sweden, cited Murhabazi's "dangerous
struggle to free children forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves"
2011 May 2, In CongoDRC at
least 106 people were missing after an overloaded boat capsized
overnight on the Kasai River.
(Reuters, 5/3/11)(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2011 May 11, A new study
released by the American Journal of Public Health said 1,152 women
are raped every day in CongoDRC, a rate equal to 48 per hour.
2011 May 27, CongoDRC’s North
Kivu governor Julien Paluku said that Munyagishari, the suspected
leader of an extremist Hutu militia, has been arrested and taken to
2011 Jun 10-2011 Jun 12, In
Congo’s South Kivu province at least 121 rapes occurred during this
period in the village of Nyakiele. Medicins Sans Frontieres worked
with Congolese health officials and the UN to get more information.
55 women said they were raped in the night of June 10 to 11, while
another said 72 women in the village of Kanguli reported having been
violated that same night.
(AP, 6/23/11)(Reuters, 6/24/11)(AP, 7/1/11)(AFP,
2011 Jun 23, In CongoDRC right
groups walked out of the Kimberley meeting in Kinshasa, where
African countries, China and India supported a decision to allow
Zimbabwe to sell some diamonds from its controversial Marange
fields. The endorsement was opposed by Western nations, rights
groups and industry.
2011 Jun 24, In CongoDRC a
4-day meeting of the Kimberly Process, a system to end the trade in
“blood diamonds," ended. Chairman Mathieu Yamba announced that two
Zimbabwean-South African joint ventures could resume diamond sales.
(Econ, 7/2/11, p.40)
2011 Jun 24, In CongoDRC 19
people were believed dead after a boat capsized overnight on Lake
2011 Jul 1, Doctors without
Borders (MSF) said cholera has claimed 153 lives out of 2,787 cases
in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the
provinces. MSF said that the outbreak began in March in the
northeastern city of Kisangani, and soon spread westwards, with the
first cases reported in Kinshasa on June 20.
2011 Jul 3, In Uganda a
motorized canoe left Panyimur on the Ugandan side of the 20-km-wide
Lake Albert with 31 passengers aboard. It sank as it approached
Mahagi on the Congolese side. In northeastern Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) 30 people were missing and one was rescued when a
motorized boat sank on Lake Albert.
(AFP, 7/5/11)(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 6, The UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the Lord's
Resistance Army forces killed 26 civilians in the Democratic
Republic of Congo in June alone.
2011 Jul 7, A CongoDRC colonel
known as Kifaru, accused of mass rapes last June in volatile eastern
Congo, surrendered with 106 others.
2011 Jul 8, In CongoDRC a Hewa
Bora Airways plane crashed in a thunderstorm as it was attempting to
land in Kisangani airport, killing at least 48 people, and leaving a
dozen or more buried in the wreckage. 53 passengers survived.
2011 Jul 11, The European Union
signed an agreement to provide 2.5 million euros ($3.5 million) to
help care for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 Jul 22, The United Nations
named two Congolese army colonels who appear to be blocking an
investigation of soldiers accused of mass gang-raping at least 47
women in eastern Congo, and said if the attackers are not identified
the officers themselves should stand trial for the crimes committed
by the troopers under their command. Col. Chuma Balumisa was
commander of the operational area including the attacked villages,
and Col. Bobo Kakudji was commander of overall operations in North
Kivu during the New Year eve rapes.
2011 Jul 28, In CongoDRC more
than 100 people were feared dead after a boat accident on the
Tshuapa river in the northwest.
(AFP, 7/29/11)(SFC, 7/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 1, CongoDRC officials
arrested Colonel Balumisa Chuma as he was smuggling a convoy of
minerals in the east of the country.
2011 Sep 1, Congo DRC police in
Kinshasa fired tear gas at hundreds of stone-throwing opposition
supporters demonstrating against alleged fraud in the run up to
2011 Sep 5, In CongoDRC leading
opposition figure Etienne Tshisekedi formally submitted his
candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections.
2011 Sep 6, In CongoDRC police
fired on protesters in Kinshasa after two early morning attacks in
which people ransacked and looted the offices of opposition leader
Etienne Tshisekedi and armed men set ablaze an independent
television station that the government had previously tried to
silence. At least one person was killed.
2011 Sep 7, Congolese
authorities imposed a temporary ban on political protests in the
capital Kinshasa over fears of escalating violence in the run-up to
November elections. 8 gunmen attacked a prison in the southeast,
freeing a former militia leader and allowing close to 1,000 inmates
to escape. Two people were killed as police recaptured 152 of the
967 escaped prisoners. Kyungu Mutanga, also known as "Commander
Gedeon", took part in a spectacular jailbreak at the Kassapa prison
in Katanga's capital Lubumbashi. Authorities soon offered $100,000
dollars for information leading to Gedeon’s arrest.
(AFP, 9/7/11)(AP, 9/7/11)(AFP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 25, In CongoDRC 19
people died when a truck crashed while carrying goods and people 180
km outside Kinshasa.
2011 Sep 25, In CongoDRC 114
prisoners fled the prison in Tshikapa, Kasai Occidental state, as an
ill prisoner was being taken to the hospital. Police soon captured
90 convicts. Prisoners had complained previously over a lack of food
and water at the prison and over the death of two prisoners amid
2011 Sep 28, In CongoDRC a
dozen men scaled the wall of the private television station that
supported Etienne Tshisekedi, the country's leading opposition
presidential candidate. Investigators said the attackers doused the
offices in gasoline and set them ablaze.
2011 Sep, In CongoDRC an
initiative by Invisible Children launched the LRA Crisis Tracker web
site along with Resolve to map out LRA incidents, mostly in northern
Congo. New high frequency radios were being distributed to help
track the Lord's Resistance Army, a brutal militia that 100 US
special forces troops were currently helping hunt.
2011 Oct 4, In CongoDRC rebels
killed five Congolese aid workers and two other civilians in an
attack in the east at Fizi, Sud-Kivu province. Those responsible
were said to be members of the Mai Mai Yakutumba militia and allied
rebels of Burundi's National Liberation Front.
2011 Oct 11, UNICEF, the UN
children's agency, warned that the west and central Africa region is
facing one of the worst cholera epidemics in its history, with over
85,000 cases reported leading to 2,466 deaths this year. The most
significant increases were in Chad, Cameroon, and in western
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 Oct 18, Congolese police
fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters demanding free
elections as a US think-tank said Kinshasa must take action to
ensure the upcoming vote is credible.
2011 Nov 3, Ugandan militiamen,
known as ADF-NALU, launched an overnight attack on a military base
in Mukakira, eastern Congo, in an attempt to free detained leaders.
Nine of the attackers were killed, along with two Congolese
2011 Nov 6, CongoDRC opposition
leader Etienne Tshisekedi (79), while visiting in South Africa,
proclaimed himself president and ordered his followers to stage
jailbreaks to free detained colleagues. Since the electoral campaign
opened Oct. 28, Tshisekedi's supporters have had clashes, some
deadly, with police and Kabila supporters in several towns.
2011 Nov 7, In the CongoDRC the
Nyamulagira volcano (also known as Nyamuragira) began an eruption
that happens about every two years. It has been described as
Africa’s most active volcano and has erupted over 40 times since
2011 Nov 22, In CongoDRC gunmen
in Kinshasa shot dead opposition lawmaker Marius Gangale in the
latest violent episode ahead of the weekend elections.
2011 Nov 22, A survey of some
6,000 people over the last 12 months in Democratic Republic of
Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe
said police are the most corrupt institution in the six countries.
2011 Nov 26, In CongoDRC police
fired bullets and tear gas into a crowd that included tens of
thousands of opposition supporters in Kinshasa. The violence
prompted officials to ban further rallies before the Nov 28 poll. At
least 12 opposition partisans and bystanders were shot dead as the
Republican Guard, the former presidential guard, quashed a rally by
supporters of President Joseph Kabila's chief rival.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Nov 28, In CongoDRC voting
began despite delays and setbacks. Armed men attacked voting centers
and a truck carrying ballots. 5 people were killed in the
southeastern town of Lubumbashi after gunmen opened fire on a truck
carrying ballots and on a polling center.
(AP, 11/28/11)(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, CongoDRC officials
extended voting to a second day in an attempt to prevent further
unrest in sub-Saharan Africa's largest nation. The election was
marred by missing ballots and violence.
2011 Nov 30, CongoDRC officials
extended voting to a third day in an attempt to prevent further
unrest in sub-Saharan Africa's largest nation.
2011 Dec 2, Human Rights Watch
said CongoDRC election-related violence has already killed 18
civilians, amid fears that fresh unrest could erupt over alleged
fraud. A UN report on March 20, 2012, said security forces killed at
least 33 people among other "serious human rights violations"
during the November elections.
(AFP, 12/2/11)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2011 Dec 3, Congo's Pres.
Kabila, who is seeking a second term in a nation reeling from
poverty and pummeled by war, was leading with just over 50 percent
of the votes after early presidential poll results were released.
2011 Dec 4, DR Congo President
Joseph Kabila led chief rival Etienne Tshisekedi 49 percent to 34
with about half of polling centers counted.
2011 Dec 5, Johannesburg police
fired rubber bullets to break up a group of demonstrators gathered
in front of the ruling ANC party headquarters to protest South
Africa's alleged involvement in fraud in the November 28 election in
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 Dec 7, In CongoDRC with
89.2% of precincts counted, Pres. Kabila had 8.3 million out of the
17.3 million votes, or 48%. Tshisekedi was trailing with 5.9 million
votes, or 34%.
2011 Dec 9, In CongoDRC
provisional results published by the election commission handed
victory to Pres. Joseph Kabila who won another term with 49% of the
18.14 million votes cast. Etienne Tshisekedi (78) took to the
airwaves to say he rejected the results and proclaimed himself
president, saying the election had been manipulated.
(AP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, CongoDRC police in
Kinshasa prowled opposition neighborhoods rounding up young men, who
were seen being dragged out of their homes and shoved into waiting
cars. Congo's police chief said at least four people have been
killed in the recent postelection violence. Observers with the
Atlanta-based Carter Center said that there is growing evidence of
possible vote suppression in parts of the country favorable to the
opposition, and vote inflation in regions known to support Kabila.
2011 Dec 10, Police in London
arrested 143 people during an angry demonstration by up to 500
people against the re-election of President Joseph Kabila in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2011 Dec 13, Police in eastern
DR Congo broke up a banned opposition protest march against
President Joseph Kabila's bitterly disputed re-election. Some 500
opposition supporters had defied a ban on protests imposed by the
mayor of Bukavu.
2011 Dec 14, CongoDRC
opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi's party called for mass
protests to "protect" the victory he claims to have won in disputed
2011 Dec 16, Judges of the
International Criminal Court at The Hague decided not to charge
Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana (48) for crimes committed
in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ordered his release.
Mbarushimana faced 13 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity allegedly committed in DR Congo's Kivu provinces in 2009.
2011 Dec 18, In the CongoDRC
opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi declared himself winner of the
recent presidential vote, despite placing second in official
(SFC, 12/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 21, Human Rights Watch
released a report stating CongoDRC security forces had killed at
least 24 people and "arbitrarily" arrested dozens more since
Kabila's disputed victory was announced December 9.
2011 Dec 23, DR Congo police
banned a swearing-in ceremony for opposition leader Etienne
Tshisekedi. Police fired tear gas at supporters of the opposition
leader who had gathered near a stadium to see him inaugurating
himself as president, three days after President Joseph Kabila was
sworn in for a second term. Tshisekedi took the oath on a Bible at
(AFP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/23/11)(AFP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 31, In France Leon
Kengo (76), CongoDRC Senate chief, was attacked at the Gare du Nord
train station "by bands of those who call themselves 'fighters'
close to Etienne Tshisekedi." According to initial reports, Kengo
had some teeth knocked out, was trampled underfoot, and rolled on
2011 Jason Stearns authored
“Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the
Great War in Africa."
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.88)
2011 CongoDRC’s current budget
was around $700 million, 40% of which was provided by the Un and
other foreign outfits.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.60)
2011 The population of CongoDRC
was about 70 million.
2012 Jan 1, In CongoDRC 8
people died and 44 were wounded when a hand grenade exploded during
an attempted jail break at the main prison in Bukavu, Sud-Kivu
province. At least 18 people were killed in the town of Luyuyu in an
attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In CongoDRC at
least 8 people were killed in the town of Ngolombe in an attack by
Rwandan Hutu rebels.
2012 Jan 12, DR Congo's
influential Catholic church denounced "serious errors" in the
tallying of November polls as the electoral commission announced a
further delay in final vote results.
2012 Jan 18, Rwanda's military
said it has suspended and put under house arrest four top military
officers over allegations of business dealings with civilians in
2012 Jan 20, The UN refugee
agency said an upsurge in violence involving government troops and
militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has forced 100,000
people from their homes since November.
2012 Jan 25, CongoDRC aid
workers declared "a humanitarian catastrophe" in southeastern Congo,
and blamed the recent deaths of at least 25 people on Kyungu
"Gedeon" Mutanga, a feared Mai Mai warlord who broke out of jail
late last year.
2012 Jan 27, In CongoDRC two
months after voters went to polls in a chaotic election, the
electoral commission announced that parties supporting Congo's
president won two-thirds of legislative seats. Electoral officials
said they also want to annul results of the legislative elections in
seven of Congo's 169 voting districts and prosecute a dozen
candidates accused of introducing irregularities and violence.
2012 Jan 30, In CongoDRC a
plane crashed after takeoff in South Kivu. There were at least five
people on board.
2012 Feb 2, CongoDRC officials
from the discredited electoral commission announced the last of the
winning legislators in results it has issued piecemeal and following
a suspension of the count from the Nov. 28 balloting. Kabila still
will command a majority in parliament, where his coalition of
several parties has won about 260 of the 500 seats, down from more
than 300 in the previous assembly.
2012 Feb 12, In CongoDRC a
private jet crashed while landing in the eastern city of Bukavu.
Presidential aid Augustin Katumba Mwanke (48) was among those
killed. There were 2 pilots and 7 passengers on the private jet. Two
American crew members also died, as well as two people crushed by
the plane as it came down at Bukavu airport.
(AP, 2/12/12)(AFP, 2/13/12)
2012 Feb 16, In CongoDRC police
in Kinshasa used tear gas to block a march by Christian groups
protesting alleged fraud in the November polls that returned
President Joseph Kabila and his party to power. Three priests and
two nuns were among those jailed.
(AFP, 2/16/12)(AP, 2/17/12)
2012 Feb 22, The top US special
operations commander for Africa said US troops helping in the
fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army
are now deployed in four Central African countries: Uganda, Congo,
South Sudan and Central African Republic.
2012 Mar 5, A marketing
campaign was launched by the Ugandan advocacy group Invisible
Children (www.kony2012.com) to vastly increase awareness about
Joseph Kony, a jungle militia leader wanted for atrocities by the
International Criminal Court and hunted by 100 US Special Forces
advisers and local troops. His Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was
operating in Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.
2012 Mar 6, The government of
the Democratic Republic of Congo headed by PM Adolphe Muzito
resigned more than three months after legislative elections.
2012 Mar 14, The International
Criminal Court at The Hague convicted Congolese warlord Thomas
Lubanga of using child soldiers, a verdict hailed as a legal
landmark in the fight against impunity for the world's most serious
2012 Mar 25, Twenty people from
DR Congo drowned when their boats capsized while crossing the river
border with Zambia enroute to a soccer game.
2012 Mar 30, The UN refugee
agency warned that attacks by the renegade Lord's Resistance Army
were on the rise and forcing thousands of people to flee. Since
March 6, 13 new attacks were recorded in northwest CongoDRC,
displacing 1,160 people in the region.
2012 Apr 11, CongoDRC’s
President Joseph Kabila said he would not order the arrest of war
crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda "under pressure" from the
international community. He said Ntaganda should be arrested and
face a military tribunal in Congo. Kabila said the military doesn't
need to hand Ntaganda over to the ICC.
(AFP, 4/11/12)(AP, 4/11/12)
2012 Apr 18, CongoDRC Finance
Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon (47) was appointed prime
minister and asked to form a new government.
2012 Apr 29, The CongoDRC
military launched an offensive against Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted
by The Hague for alleged war crimes. On May 5 the army announced a
five-day cease-fire to give army defectors a chance to return.
Defections began early this month, with ex-CNDP members claiming
that the government had failed to implement the provisions in the
2009 accord. On May 6 they formed a new group taking the name -
March 23 - from the date of the 2009 peace accord signed by rebel
groups and the Congolese government.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AFP, 5/28/12)
2012 May 5, In CongoDRC at
least 10 people, including four women working in the fields, were
killed by presumed Rwandan rebels in a Sud-Kivu village.
2012 May 6, In CongoDRC the
March 23 Movement (M23) was created by army mutineers who were part
of the former rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People
(CNDP), a Congolese Tutsi force that Rwanda denied supporting when
it was waging its insurgency. The M23 Tutsi leaders came from the
same ethnic group as Rwanda’s Pres. Kagame.
(AFP, 5/28/12)(Econ, 11/24/12, p.57)
2012 May 9, In CongoDRC the
Nord-Kivu governor's office said a 25-ton arms cache has been found
on the farm of Bosco Ntaganda, the leader and wanted war criminal of
a band of Congolese army mutineers. The farm is located in Masisi,"
part of Nord-Kivu province, where clashes took place between April
29 and May 4.
2012 May 10, In eastern
CongoDRC a military spokesman said hundreds of mutineers have
returned to the army as a deadline loomed for the ex-rebel deserters
to return to ranks.
2012 May 11, Uganda officials
said more than 10,000 people have fled from DR Congo to neighboring
Rwanda and Uganda following clashes between the Congolese army and
2012 May 12, CongoDRC
government forces launched airstrikes against mutineers near the
Rwandan border, where a rebel leader known as the "Terminator" was
said to be hiding.
2012 May 12, The WWF nature
conservancy body said a ranger and two soldiers have been killed in
Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga national park as they
protected a road used by civilians fleeing rebels.
2012 May 12, Ugandan forces
captured Caesar Acellam, a senior commander of Joseph Kony's Lord's
Resistance Army, after a brief fight with rebels near the
Congo-Central African Republic border. Two other rebel fighters were
also caught as they tried to cross a river called Mbomu. Officials
say only about 200 LRA members remain the jungle.
2012 May 13, CongoDRC mutineers
allegedly killed 26 loyalist troops in heavy fighting near the
2012 May 14, In CongoDRC
Rwandan rebels killed 22 civilians in an attack in the village of
Kamananga in Sud-Kivu province.
2012 May 15, In CongoDRC
villagers marched on the UN base in the Bunyiakiri district of South
Kivu province after an overnight attack which reportedly killed six
people. At least 11 Pakistani peacekeepers were injured as villagers
2012 May 16, Human Rights Watch
said Congolese Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, already sought on an
international arrest warrant for his alleged use of child soldiers
during an earlier conflict, has forcibly recruited another 149 boys
and teenagers since April. The UN said Rwandan rebels have killed at
least 50 civilians so far this month in the volatile east.
(AP, 5/16/12)(AFP, 5/16/12)
2012 May 19, In CongoDRC
fighting broke out when mutineers attacked army positions in the
Rutshuru territory near Virunga National Park on the Ugandan border,
home to more than half the world's 700 or so mountain gorillas.
2012 May 22, In eastern
CongoDRC a local activist said a feud between Rwandan Hutu rebels
and the Mai Mai militia last week left more than 100 people dead,
2012 May 23, The UN refugee
agency said fighting between Congolese army and mutineers has forced
tens of thousands of people from their homes since late April, with
thousands taking refuge in Uganda and Rwanda.
2012 May 28, A confidential UN
report said Rwandan citizens have been recruited and trained to
fight in support of army mutineers in neighboring Democratic
Republic of Congo.
2012 May 30, A Congolese
military court slapped 13 officers with sentences ranging from two
years to death for taking part in a mutiny in the east of the
2012 Jun 6, In CongoDRC an army
report said at least 200 mutineers have been killed in the eastern
part of the country since fighting broke out in April. 40 troops
from the FARDC regular army have also been killed in the clashes.
2012 Jun 6, A UN report said
Joseph Kony's Lord Resistance Army has abducted more than 600 child
soldiers and sex slaves over the past two years even as the hunt for
the rebel leader intensifies. At least 591 children, including 268
girls, were reported seized over the same time in Democratic
Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
2012 Jun 13, A UN independent
group of experts on CongoDRC briefed the UN Security Council saying
very senior Rwandans, including the minister of defense, were
backing rebels in the eastern Kivu provinces. Its report was
published on June 29.
(Econ, 7/7/12, p.48)
2012 Jun 20, In the Democratic
Republic of Congo almost 170 soldiers, including seven senior
officers, quit the army in the east of the DRC to join a mutinous
armed force known as M23. The deserters were all members of a former
rebel movement, the National Congress for the Defence of the People
(CNDP), who were integrated into the army early in 2009, following a
2012 Jun 25, In CongoDRC
mutineers said fighting between the army and troops who have
deserted resumed, after a week of relative calm, in the eastern
Nord-Kivu province. Officials said militants have killed at least 10
people and kidnapped a foreigner in a park in the volatile
(AFP, 6/25/12)(AP, 6/25/12)
2012 Jul 5, The DR Congo's army
(FARDC) launched an offensive to rout mutinous armed troops of the
March 23 Movement (M23) near the Virunga national park. North Kivu
residents reported that M23 rebels attacked and fought army troops
to dislodge them from Jomba, the only major village on the road from
Bunagana border post to the eastern town of Rutshuru, a border
crossing into Uganda and Rwanda. A UN peacekeeper from India was
killed in clashes. The entire population of Bunagana and some 600
Congolese troops moved into Uganda.
(AFP, 7/6/12)(AP, 7/5/12)
2012 Jul 8, In CongoDRC M23
rebels seized the eastern town of Rutshuru after the army fled their
advance. A local official said the army looted during their retreat.
M23 also took the towns of Ntamugenga and Rubare. 8 armored vehicles
from the United Nations mission fled Rutshuru for a UN base five
kilometers away in Kiwanja, where many local residents were
sheltering in a camp for displaced people. Rebels said they would
cede most of their gains to UN peacekeepers and police.
2012 Jul 10, In the Netherlands
the International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas
Lubanga to 14 years in prison, a potential landmark in the struggle
to protect children during wartime. Lubanga was found guilty in
March of recruiting and using children in his Union of Congolese
Patriots militia. An appeal in 2014 upheld his conviction.
(AP, 7/10/12)(SFC, 12/2/14, p.A2)
2012 Jul 12, UN helicopters
were deployed to stop a rebel advance on Goma after rebels seized a
number of towns on DR Congo's border with Uganda.
2012 Jul 13, The International
Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Bosco Ntaganda, a
rogue Tutsi Congolese general, and Sylvestre Mudacumura, a Rwandan
Hutu rebel leader based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who
Kigali and Kinshasa accuse each other of using as proxies in DR
2012 Jul 14, Rwanda refused to
take custody of 24 rebels who surrendered last May to UN
peacekeepers in DR Congo, which accuses Kigali of backing an army
mutiny in its restive east.
2012 Jul 15, In Ethiopia the
leaders of Congo and Rwanda agreed in principle to back a neutral
international armed force to combat Congo's newest rebellion and
other fighters terrorizing civilians in the country's mineral-rich
east. The African Union said it could help by sending soldiers.
2012 Jul 21, The US government
said it has cut this year's $200,000 planned military assistance to
Rwanda amid concerns that the government in Kigali is supporting
rebel movements in neighboring Congo.
2012 Jul 24, UN helicopters
fired on rebel positions in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
after new clashes broke out between rebel fighters and loyalist
2012 Jul 25, In eastern
CongoDRC M23 rebels allied with a local militia battled Congolese
troops backed by UN peacekeepers, and allegedly fighting alongside
rebels of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda. At
least 2 civilians were killed.
2012 Jul 26, The UN's food
agency said 10 Central African countries have agreed to take part in
a regional initiative to monitor the Congo Basin, one of the world's
largest primary rainforests. They included Burundi, Cameroon,
Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.
2012 Jul 27, The Netherlands
said it has suspended part of its development aid to Rwanda because
of Kigali's alleged support for rebels in neighboring Democratic
Republic of Congo.
2012 Jul 31, UN diplomats said
CongoDRC government forces have abandoned villages to rebel M23
forces in the east after running out of ammunition, amid mounting
concern over the new conflict.
2012 Aug 6, In Uganda leaders
from 11 countries forming the International Conference on the Great
Lakes Region gathered in Kampala to discuss a new plan calling for a
neutral international force to deploy in eastern Congo to get rid of
all the fighters.
2012 Aug 8, In CongoDRC 3 elite
troops were killed at an airport at Lubumbashi in a night attack
blamed on regional separatists. A national intelligence agency
source said the attackers were from the same Katangan separatist
group that carried out the earlier assault.
2012 Aug 8, In Uganda regional
leaders ended a meeting on a proposed neutral force for eastern
CongoDRC, with no concrete progress but a pledge to meet in a month.
2012 Aug 13, CongoDRC’s sports
ministry said a judoka and three coaches from its Olympic delegation
have gone missing after leaving the Athletes' Village at the London
2012 Aug 13, In northeast
CongoDRC a landslide at a gold mine in remote Pangoyi left at least
60 people dead.
2012 Aug 18, In Mozambique
Southern African leaders slammed Rwanda for supporting rebels in the
Democratic Republic of Congo as a threat to regional stability and
urged Kigali to immediately stop its "interference." The Southern
African Development Community (SADC) mandated a mission to Rwanda to
urge them to stop support for the M23.
2012 Aug 31, Rwanda announced
it was pulling out 280 of its soldiers from eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo, where they had been working with DR Congo troops
fighting rebel militia there.
2012 Sep 4, The World Health
Organization said the number of people with Ebola, a rare
haemorrhagic disease, in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo
has tripled since mid-August, after 14 patients died in two weeks.
2012 Sep 14, The UN said that
an outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 31 people in northeastern
Congo, more than doubling the death toll from a week ago.
2012 Sep 28, In eastern
CongoDRC another person was killed in Goma. That raised to 6 the
number of people killed this week in Goma in shootouts linked to the
2012 Oct 13, French President
Francois Hollande said his country was committed to facilitating
freedom of movement, exchange and trade within the French-speaking
world during a visit to Congo for the Francophonie Summit.
2012 Oct 20, In eastern Congo
three Roman Catholic priests were kidnapped in Beni, north of Goma,
in North Kivu province.
2012 Nov 9, The Congolese army
attacked M23 rebel positions, ending a two-month ceasefire. The next
day an M23 spokesman said 10 civilians were killed when government
forces fired on the rebel base in Kitagoma, in eastern Congo.
2012 Nov 14, A United Nations
report said that while international attention centers on the M23
rebels, other armed groups in eastern Congo have killed more than
260 civilians since April.
2012 Nov 15, In CongoDRC 151
M23 rebels were reported killed in new fighting between the
Congolese army and rebels, ending a two-month cease-fire in North
Kivu province. Two army officers were killed and seven wounded in
the fighting. Col. Vianney Kazarama, spokesman of the M23, denied
the heavy casualties, saying that only two rebels were wounded.
(AP, 11/15/12)(AP, 11/16/12)
2012 Nov 17, In CongoDRC the
U.N.'s mission (MONUSCO) launched an aerial attack on the M23 rebel
group after fighting resumed following a months long lull in
2012 Nov 18, In eastern
CongoDRC a Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 3 km (1.8
miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital, marking the first time
that rebels have come this close since 2008.
2012 Nov 20, In eastern
CongoDRC M23, a rebel group created just seven months ago, seized
the strategic provincial capital of Goma, home to more than 1
million people, and its international airport.
2012 Nov 21, Thousands of
Congolese soldiers and policemen defected to the M23 rebels, as
rebel leaders vowed to take control of all Congo, including the
capital Kinshasa. Congo President Joseph Kabila met with Rwanda
President Paul Kagame In Uganda for emergency talks prompted by the
fall of Goma. Rwanda is blamed for backing the M23 by Congo and by
the United Nations.
2012 Nov 21, A new UN report
accused the Rwandan military of commanding and supporting rebel
forces in eastern Congo and charged that Salim Saleh (52), the
brother of Uganda's long-serving President Yoweri Museveni, actively
backs the movement.
2012 Nov 23, Congo's president
has suspended the army's chief of staff, following the publication
of a United Nations report which reveals that Gen. Gabriel Amisi
oversaw a criminal network selling arms to rebels in the country's
2012 Nov 23, Congolese troops
fleeing the M23 rebels raped at least 97 women and 33 girls, some as
young as 6, over the last 24 hours. A UN report released on May 8,
2013 said most of the rapes took place over Nov. 22-23, 2012,
in the eastern Congo town of Minova.
2012 Nov 24, Regional leaders
meeting in Uganda called for an end to the advance by M23 rebels
toward Congo's capital, and also urged the Congolese government to
sit down with rebel leaders as residents fled some towns for fear of
more fighting between the rebels and army. Locals in Minova reported
that the retreating army troops had gone on a rampage over the last
2012 Nov 27, Congo's M23 rebels
defied a deadline imposed by neighboring nations, saying they will
stay in the crucial, eastern city of Goma and will fight the
Congolese army to hold it.
2012 Nov 27, Congo residents
and M23 rebels said that another rebel group, the FDLR, has crossed
the border into Rwanda and is fighting the Rwandan army.
2012 Nov 28, Congo rebels
believed to be backed by Rwanda began retreating from the territory
they seized last week and pulled out of Masisi. Gen. Sultani
Makenga, the military chief of the eight-month-old rebellion, said
that his fighters intend to abide by an ultimatum issued by the
nations neighboring Congo, which called for the M23 rebels to
retreat no later than Nov 30 to 20 km (12 miles) outside of Goma.
2012 Nov 30, Rebels in Congo
believed to be backed by Rwanda postponed their departure from the
key eastern city of Goma by 48 hours for "logistical reasons,"
defying for a second time an ultimatum set by neighboring African
countries and backed by Western diplomats.
2012 Nov 30, Britain said it
was withholding 21 million pounds of aid which was about to be paid
to Rwanda because of "credible" reports the government in Kigali is
supporting rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo
2012 Dec 1, In CongoDRC rebels
believed to be backed by Rwanda completed their retreat from Goma,
less than two weeks after taking control of the strategic city.
2012 Dec 18, The International
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague acquitted Congolese militia leader
Mathieu Ngudjolo of all charges of commanding fighters who destroyed
a village in eastern Congo in 2003, raping and hacking to death some
200 people, including children.
2012 Dec 18, The US Treasury
Department made public sanctions against two leaders of Congo's M23
rebel group. The US government accused Baudoin Ngaruye and Innocent
Kaina of using child soldiers.
2012 Ben Rawlence authored
“Radio Congo: Signals of Hope from Africa’s Deadliest War."
(Econ, 7/14/12, p.75)
2013 Jan 6, The South African
presidency announced that is sending 400 army troops to Central
African Republic to help the country's army as it faces a threat
from a coalition of rebel groups. Neighboring countries Cameroon,
Gabon and Republic of Congo already have sent about 120 troops each
to help stabilize the country confronted by the rebellion.
2013 Jan 24, The UN Security
Council approved the use of surveillance drones over eastern Congo
to monitor roving militias.
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 5, South African
police arrested 19 suspected members of a Congolese rebel group,
accusing them of plotting to overthrow their nation's government
after it recently came under attack by militants said to be backed
by neighboring Rwanda.
2013 Feb 6, In Uganda
representatives of the Congolese government and the M23 rebels
signed a preliminary agreement in which both parties accepted
responsibility for the failure of an earlier 2009 peace deal.
2013 Feb 8, Police in South
Africa arrested the "ringleader" of a group of 19 Congolese rebels
who now face charges of allegedly plotting a war to unseat Congolese
President Joseph Kabila. Prosecutors last week identified Etienne
Kabila as being in charge of the group.
2013 Feb 24, In Ethiopia 11
African countries signed a UN-drafted peace deal to stabilize Congo
DRC, where rebels allegedly backed by neighboring countries last
year threatened to oust the government.
2013 Feb 27, In CongoDRC the
M23 divided into two groups over disagreements on negotiations with
the Congolese government. The splinter group is lead by the M23
president Jean-Marie Runiga and Gen. Baudoin Ngaruye. The new group
is reported to be aligned with warlord Bosco Ntaganda.
2013 Feb 28, In CongoDRC a
spokesperson of the M23 said General Sultani Makenga has dismissed
Jean-Marie Runiga, the president of the M23 rebel group, over
accusations that he is supporting Bosco Ntaganda, a wanted war
2013 Mar 1, Fighting erupted in
eastern Congo between two factions of the M23 rebel group. An
estimated 23 people died in the fighting, according to an officer
with the main part of M23. The Congolese army entered Kiwanja, a
town that was run by M23 rebels for more than six months. Doctors
Without Borders said that more than 55 civilians have been killed in
fighting in another town in Congo's east, Kitchanga, where 135
people have been wounded.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 3, The Congolese
military said it has given control of two key eastern towns back to
the M23 rebel group to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing peace process.
2013 Mar 4, In CongoDRC a plane
crash in the center of the eastern city of Goma killed seven people
and injured three.
2013 Mar 16, In CongoDRC a
faction of the M23 rebel group under Gen. Sultani Makenga said it
has regained control of all of the group's territory in eastern
Congo, as Jean-Marie Runiga, the leader of its rival faction, was
arrested in Rwanda.
2013 Mar 18, In Rwanda
Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda (39), nicknamed "The Terminator,"
showed up at the gates of the US Embassy in Kigali. Ntaganda asked
to be handed over to the International Criminal Court, which issued
its first arrest warrant for him in 2006.
2013 Mar 23, In CongoDRC
at least 35 people were killed after hundreds of militia fighters
attacked the southeast mining center of Lubumbashi. 245 Mai Mai
fighters surrendered to UN peacekeepers.
2013 Mar 28, The UN Security
Council authorized a new intervention brigade for CongoDRC with a
mandate to take military action alone or with Congolese troops
against rebel groups to help bring peace in the conflict-racked
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar, Lord's Resistance
Army fighters in Congo released 28 abductees, women and children,
suggesting the group is undergoing turmoil amid a manhunt, supported
by US military advisers, for its leaders.
2013 Mar, The UN Development
Program named CongoDRC the least developed country in the world. It
was tied with Niger.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.74)
2013 Apr 13, Congolese Justice
Minister Wivine Mumba said a dozen senior officers in the Congolese
army have been arrested for responsibility for mass rapes committed
by several army units in eastern Congo in November 2012.
2013 May 7, In eastern CongoDRC
a UN peacekeeper from Pakistan was killed in South Kivu province.
2013 May 8, In CongoDRC a
community leader said that nearly 30 people have been kidnapped by
the M23 rebels in their eastern fief of Rutshuru since the beginning
of April. The kidnappings appear to be for ransom.
2013 May 10, A contingent of
about 100 Tanzanian troops began arriving in eastern Congo, a first
step in assembling the new UN intervention brigade. 3,000 soldiers
from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi were expected in a month or
(AP, 5/11/13)(AP, 5/14/13)(Econ, 6/15/13, p.50)
2013 May 15, In CongoDRC at
least 24 militiamen and 3 soldiers died, including a lieutenant
colonel, in fighting between soldiers and Mai Mai militiamen in
Beni, 220 miles (350 km) north of Goma. 5 others, who were awaiting
transfer to a military training center, were also killed.
2013 May 17, The body of a
Congolese journalist was found on the bank of the Ngezi River near
the provincial capital of Bunia in eastern Congo. Guylain Chanjabo,
a journalist at Radio Canal Révélation in Bunia, had disappeared 12
2013 May 20, In eastern
CongoDRC clashes erupted near Muja between government troops and the
M23 rebel group, believed to be backed by neighboring Rwanda.
2013 May 21, In CongoDRC
fighting between the M23 rebels and the army continued for a second
day the eastern provincial capital of Goma. The clashes have so far
killed 20 people, all of them either soldiers or rebels.
2013 May 22, In CongoDRC UN
Sec. Gen’l. Ban Ki-moon and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim
launched a novel partnership in Kinshasa. $1 billion in funds
pledged by the World Bank for development would back UN efforts for
peace in eastern Congo.
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.51)
2013 May 23, In CongoDRC M23
rebels fired two rockets into the eastern city of Goma, killing one
person and wounding four. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived
in Goma, hours after a rebel group fighting government forces nearby
said they would impose a cease-fire to allow the visit to proceed.
2013 May 29, A UN spokesman
says that Congo's M23 rebels have fired several rockets on Goma over
the past week, killing 2 people.
2013 Jun 3, The Enough Project,
the Satellite Sentinel Project and two other groups said in a new
report that members of Joseph Kony’s LRA have turned to elephant
poaching in CongoDRC and the CAR and that the militia trades illegal
ivory to acquire food and other supplies. The report also said
elephants of Garamba National Park also are being targeted by
"members of the armed forces of (Congo), South Sudan, Sudan, and
Uganda," citing the concerns of park rangers there.
2013 Jun 27, The UN raised the
alarm about the recent rape of 9 girls in eastern Congo. The
youngest was 18 months old and 2 of the girls died.
(SFC, 6/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 14, Uganda Red Cross
said more than 60,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda after a rebel
attack on a town near the border in a continuing influx that is
stretching humanitarian capacities.
2013 Jul 14, In eastern
CongoDRC fresh fighting erupted after more than 100 armed men
disguised in women's clothing entered the country from Rwanda.
2013 Jul 15, The Congolese army
claimed that it killed 120 rebels in eastern Congo.
2013 Jul 16, Congo's army says
its helicopter gunships have bombarded rebel positions during a
third straight day of fighting between government forces and M23
2013 Jul 22, Congo's army said
fighting has resumed between government forces and M23 rebels in the
east of the country following a three-day lull.
2013 Jul 22, Human Rights Watch
reported that the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo continued to
receive significant support from neighboring Rwanda despite ongoing
abuses including killings, rape and forced recruitment of children.
2013 Jul 30, The UN
peacekeeping mission in Congo announced that it plans to disarm
anyone outside the national security forces who is caught with a
firearm in the eastern city of Goma and its northern suburbs.
2013 Jul, In CongoDRC 4
employees of Doctors Without Borders were taken hostage. In late
August 2014 Chantal Kaghoma and three other employees were freed.
2013 Aug 23, Congo's government
accused Rwanda of supporting a rebel attack on the eastern city of
2013 Aug 24, In CongoDRC shells
fired by M23 rebels killed at least 3 people in the eastern city of
Goma. Two UN peacekeepers from Uruguay reportedly shot dead 2 people
who were part of a crowd that tried to storm the mission's base in
Goma during a protest against alleged UN inaction in the strife-torn
(Reuters, 8/24/13)(AFP, 8/26/13)
2013 Aug 25, Congolese soldiers
and rebels suffered heavy casualties as they fought for a 5th day
(SFC, 8/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 26, The UN mission in
the Democratic Republic of Congo said it has opened a probe after
residents accused its peacekeepers of killing 2 people who tried to
storm a UN base in Goma.
2013 Aug 30, In CongoDRC rebels
entrenched in the hills above Goma declared a unilateral ceasefire
and began retreating from the frontline, the first indication that a
joint United Nations and Congolese offensive might be gaining the
2013 Sep 27, CongoDRC customs
officers seized 375 kg of coltan, a precious mineral used in
electronics, en route to Rwanda.
2013 Sep 28, In eastern
CongoDRC fighting for a 2nd day between two rival militia forces
left at least 10 people dead in the Masisi territory.
2013 Oct 13, A detachment of
Angolan troops crossed into neighboring Congo Republic and detained
a group of Congolese soldiers. The incident highlights tensions
around Angola's oil-rich Cabinda enclave, which is separated from
the rest of Angola and surrounded by Congo Republic and Democratic
Republic of Congo. 55 soldiers of the Republic of Congo were
released on Oct 18.
(Reuters, 10/17/13)(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 25, In CongoDRC
fighting resumed between the army and rebels in the northeast, just
days after the latest effort at peace talks fell apart. Rwanda said
Congolese army shells had landed on its territory.
(AFP, 10/25/13)(Reuters, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 26, In eastern
CongoDRC fighting raged between soldiers and rebels for a
2013 Oct 27, The Congolese army
said it had recaptured two more towns and was heading for the rebel
stronghold of Rutshuru in a third day of fighting. A Tanzanian
officer with UN forces operating alongside government troops was
killed in fighting with rebels.
(Reuters, 10/27/13)(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 28, The Congolese
army, who one year ago abandoned their posts and fled in the face of
an advancing rebel army, succeeded on in taking back Rumangabo, the
fifth, rebel-held town.
2013 Oct 29, In CongoDRC 6
people were killed in clashes between military police and a group of
separatist attackers at a munitions depot in the southwestern city
2013 Oct 29, South Africa
signed an agreement to buy over half of the power generated by the
first phase of the Grand Inga hydroelectric project in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
2013 Nov 3, Democratic Republic
of Congo's M23 rebels declared a ceasefire in their fight with the
army, in a move they hope will advance peace talks with the
2013 Nov 4, Democratic Republic
of Congo troops drove M23 rebels from one of their key hilltop
positions in the east of the country, pushing on with their assault
despite calls for a truce. Mortar shells fell on a market in eastern
Congo, killing 4 people as fighting intensified between government
soldiers and the M23 fighters.
(AFP, 11/4/13)(AP, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 5, A leader of the M23
rebel group in eastern Congo said his movement is ending its
rebellion after more than a year and a half of fighting as the
Congolese military seized the last two hills that had been held by
2013 Nov 7, Uganda’s military
said Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 guerrillas, including rebel
chief Sultani Makenga, have surrendered en masse in Uganda,
signalling the end of an 18-month insurgency.
2013 Nov, An unpublished report
by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s public prosecutor’s office
said the country is owed an estimated $3.7 billion in unpaid customs
duties and fines by companies operating in its copper-rich Katanga
province between 2008 and 2013. News of the draft document was only
made public in Jan, 2014.
2013 Dec 3, UN forces in
Democratic Republic of Congo launched unmanned aircraft to monitor
the volatile border with Rwanda and Uganda, the first time UN
peacekeepers have deployed surveillance drones. The UN announced its
peacekeeping troops will go after other armed groups in the DRC,
after helping to defeat the M23 rebel force.
(Reuters, 12/3/13)(AFP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 10, The UN command and
Congolese troops launched an offensive in the eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo against against the FDLR (Democratic Forces for
the Liberation of Rwanda), a Rwandan rebel group linked to the 1994
2013 Dec 12, Congo and the
so-called M23 rebels signed a peace agreement that will see the
insurgent group demobilize its fighters and transform itself into a
2013 Dec 13, UN peacekeeping
chief Herve Ladsous said an arsenal of weapons have been found by UN
peacekeepers, including heavy caliber arms and enough ammunition to
last a year, at the site of the last stand by M23 rebels in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2013 Dec 14, In CongoDRC
unknown assailants over the last 24 hours killed people 21 in the
villages of Musuku and Mwenda, in the eastern territory of Beni. The
victims, including women and children, were found hacked to death
and some were mutilated.
2013 Dec 25, In eastern
CongoDRC at least 40 civilians were killed by the Ugandan ADF-NALU
rebel group attack on a village in North Kivu province. A special UN
force in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo used helicopters to
fire on the rebels and help government troops retake the town of
(AFP, 12/25/13)(Reuters, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 30, Congolese security
forces repelled a wave of coordinated attacks against symbols of
power in the capital Kinshasa and other cities, leaving dozens of
assailants dead in a day of fierce gunbattles. Congo's army clashed
with followers of religious leader Paul Joseph Mukungubila Mutombo
in the eastern mining city of Lubumbashi. The clashes left over 100
people dead and Mutombo went on the run.
(AFP, 12/30/13)(Reuters, 12/30/13)(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Michael Deibert authored
“Congo: Between Hope and Despair."
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.54)
2014 Jan 2, In CongoDRC Colonel
Mamadou Ndala (34), the commander of government troops fighting
Ugandan Islamist rebels in the restive east of country, was killed
along with two bodyguards in an ambush.
(AFP, 1/2/14)(AP, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 11, In CongoDRC 4
people were killed and two seriously injured in a clash between
Virunga national park rangers and suspected Rwandan FDLR rebels.
2014 Jan 17, CongoDRC forces
attacked Ugandan Islamist rebels in the lawless east, launching a
UN-backed offensive to clear insurgents from the mineral-rich zone.
2014 Jan 24, In CongoDRC an
explosion at an arms depot killed over 20 people near the
diamond-mining hub of Mbuji-Mayi.
(Reuters, 1/25/14)(SFC, 1/27/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 12, CongoDRC Pres.
Joseph Kabila, announced an amnesty for former members of the
defeated M23 rebel army.
2014 Feb 13, The UN mission in
CongoDRC (MONUSCO) said more than 70 men and women have been
summarily executed in the restive eastern part of the country late
last month and early this month.
2014 Feb 14, The CongoDRC
government said 22 Congolese soldiers and 230 Ugandan rebels have
been killed in a nearly month-long offensive in restive eastern DRC.
2014 Feb 15, In CongoDRC
journalist Germain Kennedy Muliwavyo (30) died after being shot in
the head and stomach during an ambush 60 km outside of Beni.
2014 Feb 26, The International
Criminal Court led calls for the government of Democratic Republic
of Congo to arrest visiting Sudanese President Omar Bashir, who is
wanted on charges of genocide in Darfur.
2014 Mar 7, Congolese warlord
Germain Katanga was convicted of being an accessory to war crimes
including murder and pillage - only the second conviction in the
12-year history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The
Hague. Katanga was convicted as an accessory in the attack on Bogoro
village in 2003 that left some 200 civilians dead and many women
raped and turned into sex slaves.
(Reuters, 3/7/14)(SFC, 3/8/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 11, In CongoDRC a
ground assault by government forces in Makoyoya followed UN
helicopter attacks and killed 22 rebels.
(Econ, 3/15/14, p.47)
2014 Mar 22, Uganda said at
least 107 people were killed and dozens of others were missing after
a boat carrying mostly Congolese refugees capsized on Lake Albert
that runs along the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of
Congo. An estimated 250 people were on the boat with 41 rescued.
(Reuters, 3/23/14)(AFP, 3/24/14)(AP, 3/25/14)
2014 Apr 15, In CongoDRC three
gunmen ambushed and seriously wounded Emmanuel de Merode, chief
warden of Virunga National Park.
2014 Apr 22, In CongoDRC some
50 people were killed when a train derailed in the southeast.
(AFP, 4/23/14)(SFC, 4/24/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 25, In CongoDRC at
least 23 people were killed when a stampede broke out in Kikwit,
Bandundu province during a tribute for singer King Kester Emeneya
(57), who died in Paris in February.
2014 Apr 29, CongoDRC officials
said nearly 40,000 Congolese citizens have been deported over the
last two weeks from neighboring Republic of Congo because they did
not have immigration papers.
(SFC, 4/30/14, p.A2)
2014 May 10, In the Congo
Republic Udjani Mangbama, DR Congo militia boss, was among 11 people
killed in an area near Owando, 500 km north of Brazzaville.
2014 May 11, In CongoDRC a
stampede at the Tata Raphael Stadium in Kinshasa killed at least 15
people and injured more than a dozen after police fired tear gas
canisters into the crowd after fighting broke out at the end of a
match between soccer teams, AS Vita Club and TP Mazembe.
(AP, 5/12/14)(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 23, The Int’l.
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague sentenced Germain Katanga, a
Congolese militia leader, to 12 years in prison for his role in a
2003 attack where more than 200 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.A3)
2014 Jun 5, In CongoDRC at
least four people were killed when 301 inmates broke out of the main
prison in Bukavu.
2014 Jun 7, In eastern CongoDRC
armed men burst into a church overnight, killing up to 37 people
including women and children. The victims were ethnic Bafuliru and
were spending the night in the church in the South Kivu province
after a meeting. The attack was believed to be in revenge of cattle
(AP, 6/7/14)(Reuters, 6/7/14)
2014 Jun 11, CongoDRC soldiers
exchanged fire with Rwandan troops who crossed the border and seized
a Congolese soldier.
2014 Jun 12, Rwandan and
Congolese troops traded heavy weapons fire in a second day of
skirmishes between two neighbors locked in a decades-long dispute.
2014 Jun 13, In South Africa’s
Johannesburg-based African Parks group said that since mid-May at
least 68 elephants have been slaughtered by poachers over the last
two months using chain saws and helicopters in the 5,000 square km
(1,900 square mile) Garamba National Park in Congo.
2014 Jul 1, The United States
blacklisted a Ugandan Islamic group, the Allied Democratic Forces,
for targeting children in armed conflict in the Democratic Republic
2014 Jul 2, African nations
agreed to suspend military operations for six months against
Congo-based Rwandan rebels in order to give them more time to lay
down their arms. The suspension was announced after a meeting in
Angola of foreign ministers from a regional bloc including Angola,
Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, DRC, Kenya,
Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
2014 Jul 16, Medical charity
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said women and children are being
kidnapped by armed gangs and forced to work as sex slaves in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2014 Jul 22, In CongoDRC gunmen
attacked a major military base in Kinshasa, but the government said
the situation had been quickly brought under control. At least 4
attackers were reported killed.
2014 Jul 23, Representatives of
the Muslim and Christian factions battling in Central African
Republic signed a cease-fire agreement in neighboring Republic of
2014 Aug 7, An oil company
owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler said it had discovered
reserves of around 3 billion barrels in the Democratic Republic of
2014 Aug 20, Democratic
Republic of Congo said it has sent its health minister and a team of
experts to the remote northern Equateur province after several
people died there from a disease with Ebola-like symptoms.
2014 Aug 21, The WHO said at
least 70 people have died in northern Democratic Republic of Congo
from an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, denying that the
illness was Ebola.
2014 Aug 24, Congo DRC
confirmed its first two cases this year of Ebola but claimed they
were unrelated to the epidemic ravaging West Africa. The
confirmation marked the 7th outbreak of Ebola in Congo DRC, where
the virus was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River.
2014 Sep 2, CongoDRC government
said the death toll from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the
northern Djera region has risen to 31. The WHO confirmed there was
no link with an epidemic in West Africa.
2014 Sep 6, The Democratic
Republic of Congo upped its death toll from Ebola to 32 but insisted
the outbreak, separate from an epidemic raging in west Africa, could
be contained in its remote forest hotspot.
2014 Sep 9, The Invisible
Children organization said more than 70 women and children, abducted
by the Lord’s Resistance Army, have been freed over the past month.
12 of the abductees managed to escape following recent clashes in
CongoDRC between rebels and security forces.
(SFC, 9/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 1, The Democratic
Republic of Congo raised its death toll from the Ebola virus to 42
as it struggled to contain the second outbreak of the disease in
Africa this year.
2014 Oct 9, In CongoDRC 9
civilians were killed overnight when suspected members of a
notorious Ugandan Islamist group stormed Oicha village.
2014 Oct 16, In eastern
CongoDRC assailants hacked or stabbed 26 victims to death in the
overnight onslaught in Beni. Civil society groups in the North-Kivu
region said the attack was carried out by the Allied Democratic
Forces, a Ugandan rebel group.
2014 Oct 17, In CongoDRC
Ugandan rebels hacked and clubbed to death 10 women, 8 children and
4 men in the town of Eringeti.
2014 Oct 22, The European
Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to
Congolese gynaecological surgeon Dr. Denis Mukwege (59) for risking
his life to treat women and end the use of mass rape as a weapon of
(SFC, 10/23/14, p.A4)
2014 Oct 30, In northeast
CongoDRC ADF-NALU militants killed 14 people early today in the
village of Kampi ya Chui. The ADF-NALU, an alliance of groups
opposed to the Ugandan government, has operated from bases in
neighboring Congo since the mid-2000s.
2014 Oct 31, In northeast
CongoDRC a crowd stoned to death a young man before burning and
eating his corpse in Beni. The man aroused suspicion on a bus when
passengers discovered he could not speak the local Swahili language
and that he was carrying a machete.
2014 Nov 18, Human Rights Watch
said CongoDRC police committed abuses in "Operation Likofi," a
three-month drive launched last November to quash an upsurge in
armed robbery and other crimes by small gangs, known as kuluna. The
report said police killed at least 51 young men and teenage boys
when they were unarmed, outside their homes, or in open markets, for
maximum intimidation effect.
2014 Nov 20, In CongoDRC
between 50 and 80 people were killed in an attack near Beni, North
2014 Dec 11, In the southeast
CongoDRC at least 129 people drowned when the passenger ship M/V
Mutambala capsized on Lake Tanganyika.
2014 Dec 16, In Uganda scores
of M23 rebels fled the camp where they were being held ahead of
repatriation to CongoDRC.
(SFC, 12/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 20, In eastern
CongoDRC 2 men were burnt alive by civilians after they attacked a
military office in Beni.
2014 Dec 22, In CongoDRC at
least 30 people died when an overcrowded boat hit a rock and sank on
the Congo river. On Dec 25 rioting youngsters went on the rampage in
Isangi, the vessel's scheduled destination.
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group
of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from
DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military
official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a
cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following
five days of non-stop military operations.
2015 Jan 5, In CongoDRC UN and
Democratic Republic of Congo forces seized several rebel bases in an
offensive launched against a Burundi rebel group.
2015 Jan 20, In CongoDRC
hundreds of youths confronted police in the capital after deadly
protests over a draft law that would enable President Joseph Kabila
to extend his stay in power.
2015 Jan 22, In CongoDRC
government spokesman Lambert Mende said that 12 people have died in
three days of unrest and pillaging that began on Jan 19. A coalition
of human rights groups said 42 people were killed by security forces
firing on protesters. In the east 4 more people died during protests
over a proposed law the opposition fears will prolong the
president's time in power. On Feb 5 the government raised the death
toll in Goma and Kinshasa to 27.
(AP, 1/22/15)(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Jan 23, The Democratic
Republic of Congo's Senate backed down on a hotly-contested
electoral bill enabling President Joseph Kabila to extend his hold
on power following days of deadly protests.
2015 Jan 31, DR Congo's foreign
minister said government troops have started their long-awaited
offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country.
2015 Jan, The UN Security
Council authorized a 3,000 strong multinational intervention force
against the FDLR, a militia in eastern Congo formed two decades ago
by Rwandan Hutu rebels after they lost power.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.43)
2015 Feb 3, In eastern CongoDRC
23 people were hacked to death in the city of Beni in the restive
North Kivu province. Ugandan ADF-NALU rebels were suspected.
2015 Feb 12, In western
CongoDRC dozens of people were missing after a collision between two
boats on the Congo River. 3 bodies were recovered out of an
estimated 100 on board one of the vessels. Some 42 survivors made it
2015 Feb 15, Congo's Pres.
Joseph Kabila condemned a decision by the United Nations to withdraw
its support from a joint military offensive against a rebel group
because the military decided it should be directed by two generals
who have links to human rights violations.
2015 Feb 24, The army of the
Democratic Republic of Congo launched an assault against FDLR
Rwandan Hutu rebels in the volatile east.
2015 Mar 4, Congo DRC police in
Kinshasa said they have arrested a Belgian man (74) on allegations
he raped two girls ages 11 and 13.
2015 Mar 18, In eastern Congo
DRC violent clashes have erupted between the army and a militia,
forcing many civilians to flee their homes. Rebels killed at least
four civilians as they fled the Congolese army operation.
(AFP, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security
Council voted to cut 2,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping force in
the Democratic Republic of Congo despite calls from Kinshasa for a
2015 Mar 27, The UN High
Commissioner for Refugees said that LRA fighters kidnapped 16 people
last weekend who had been working in their fields in Congo, just
over the border from Central African Republic. The rebels released
13 of them but were still holding three refugee boys.
2015 May 6, The UN mission in
Congo DRC said four missing peacekeepers have been found following
an attack that left 2 others dead.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 6, Rwandan rebels in
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed around 10 soldiers in an
ambush in the Masisi region of north Kivu province.
2015 May 8, In Congo DRC at
least 7 bodies were killed in Matembo, North Kivu Province. A series
of massacres in the area has left more than 300 people dead in the
last seven months.
(AFP, 5/9/15)(AP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 11, In eastern Congo
DRC 6 people were hacked to death in a new attack blamed on Ugandan
rebels near Beni.
(AP, 5/12/15) (AP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 13, In eastern Congo
DRC suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist
rebel group, killed at least 22 people near Beni, North Kivu
province, the third deadly attack on civilians in the region in the
2015 May 13, The UN
peacekeeping mission said dozens of Pygmies in Democratic Republic
of Congo's southeast have been killed by Bantu militiamen in the
past week, in an escalation in a two-year ethnic conflict.
2015 Jun 2, In eastern Congo
DRC 4 soldiers and 3 assailants were killed overnight when a gang
raided the Goma airport during an apparent robbery.
2015 Jun 10, British NGO Global
Witness said British oil company Soco International paid off an army
officer accused of silencing critics of exploration in Democratic
Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park. Global Witness published
scans of four checks totaling $15,600 (14,000 euros) allegedly
issued by Soco's Congolese subsidiary to the major posted to the
park. Two receipts for the checks signed by the officer were dated
May 15, 2014 and April 30, 2014.
2015 Jun 17, Democratic
Republic of Congo topped the 2015 Corruption Risk Index by risk
advisory firm Verisk Maplecroft, followed by Somalia, Central
African Republic, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.
2015 Jun 17, In Congo DRC
heavily armed poachers, believed to be from South Sudan, killed a
ranger and two soldiers patrolling in Garamba National Park.
2015 Jul 14, Ugandan rebels
shot dead or burned alive 9 people during an attack in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2015 Jul 23, In Congo DRC
Ugandan ADF rebels killed 3 women and burned down four buildings in
the village of Mayi-Moya, North Kivu province.
2015 Aug 7, In eastern Congo
DRC an earthquake killed 2 children and a police officer and
triggered fears that nearby volcano Mount Nyiragongo could erupt.
2015 Aug 12, A UN report said a
measles outbreak in the copper-mining Katanga province in the
Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 315 people and infected at
2015 Aug 26, UN peacekeepers
said they would have to cut rations for 6,800 ex-rebels and their
families left in limbo in government camps in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, blaming a shortage of funds and calling for the
state to step in.
2015 Aug 31, In eastern Congo
DRC unidentified gunmen killed six elite presidential guard soldiers
in an ambush north of Goma.
2015 Sep 6, Congo DRC local
officials said 7 civilians were killed in a new attack by Ugandan
rebels in the restive North Kivu Province. The Allied Democratic
Forces (ADF) are accused of killing more than 400 people over the
last 10 months.
2015 Sep 15, In Congo DRC more
than 1,000 people demonstrated on the streets of the capital against
what they said are plans by President Joseph Kabila to cling to
power after his constitutional mandate ends next year.
2015 Sep 17, Kenyan security
forces searching one of its ships at Mombasa port discovered
undeclared weapons among the consignment of UN vehicles. The
consignment of vehicles was from Mumbai, India, and was destined for
the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo. On Sep 27 the
Norwegian-flagged ship was reported released.
(AP, 9/23/15)(AP, 9/27/15)
2015 Sep 24, The South African
military said it is withdrawing about 50 peacekeepers from a United
Nations mission in Congo because they violated disciplinary codes.
2015 Sep 24, In Congo DRC at
least 8 people were killed in an attack on an army camp late today
in Rumangabo village, North Kivu province, that local sources blamed
on Rwandan Hutu rebels targeted by a Congolese army operation.
2015 Sep 27, In Congo DRC 13
people were killed in the restive in an attack on a convoy
transporting some $40,000 in salaries for teachers in South Kivu