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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.A Cool

(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)
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.
(ATC, p.150)(www.economicexpert.com/a/Kongo.htm)

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.
(ATC, p.149)

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 protectorate.
(www.economicexpert.com/a/Kongo.htm)

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.
(www.millersville.edu/~winthrop/Thornton.html)

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 Heart.”
(WSJ, 10/31/08, p.A15)

1876 Sep 14, Henry Morton Stanley's expedition left Rwanda.
(MC, 9/14/01)

1876 Oct 17, Henry Morton Stanley's expedition reached the Lualaba River.
(MC, 10/17/01)

1877 Jun 3, Frank Pocock, British explorer, drowned in the Congo.
(MC, 6/3/02)

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.W Cool

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]
(MC, 5/8/02)

1881 Sep 24, Henry Morton Stanley signed a contract with Congo monarch. [see May 8]
(MC, 9/24/01)

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.
(AP, 8/18/03)

1884 Feb 26, Leopold II of Belgium signed in Congo a British and Portuguese treaty.
(SC, 2/26/02)

1885 Feb 26, The Congress of Berlin gave Congo to Belgium and Nigeria to England.
(SC, 2/26/02)

1885 May 2, The Congo Free State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
(HN, 5/2/9 Cool

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 rubber boom.
(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 Adventure."
(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.
(HN, 7/31/9 Cool

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).
(SC, 3/4/02)

1893 Mar 9, Congo cannibals killed 1000s of Arabs.
(MC, 3/9/02)

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 wealth.(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.4)

1901 Edmund Dene Morel (2 Cool

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. Cool

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, 6/29/9 Cool

(SFEM, 8/16/98, p.7, Cool

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 the Congo.
(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 (Zaire).
MC, 11/10/01)

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 desert."
(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.
(SC, 7/2/02)

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 related to cyanide poison from improper preparation of cassava root.
(NH, 7/96, p.14)

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.
(HNQ, 11/27/00)

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.
(SFC, 2/2/00, p.A19)(SFC, 1/15/01, p.A11)(SFC, 4/13/05, p.A5)(www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/pandemics.htm)

1959 Nov 1, Patrice Lumumba was arrested in the Belgian Congo.
(MC, 11/1/01)

1959 Congo’s Mobutu became an asset of the US CIA during a meeting in Brussels.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A Cool

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.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A5)(www.aidsorigins.com/content/view/165/2/)

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 president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba)

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.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)(SFEM, 5/7/00, p.1 Cool

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba)

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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis)

1960 Jul 16, The 1st UN troops reached Congo to replace Belgian troops.
(www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/onucB.htm)

1960 Aug 25, In Congo demonstrations took place against premier Lumumba.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)

1960 Sep 5, Congo’s President Kasavubu fired Premier Lumumba.
(http://tinyurl.com/2s9dyw)

1960 Sep 14, A Congo coup led by Col. Mobutu overthrew PM Patrice Lumumba.
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mobutu-Sese-Seko)

1960 Nov 27, Patrice Lumumba fled Leopoldville, Congo.
(MC, 11/27/01)

1960 Dec 1, Patrice Lumumba was caught in the Congo.
(MC, 12/1/01)

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.
(MC, 9/13/01)

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 Back” (1962).
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP, 9/18/97)(SSFC, 12/21/08, p.B6)

1961 Nov 11, Congolese soldiers murdered 13 Italian UN pilots.
MC, 11/11/01)

1963 Mobutu, chief of staff of Congo’s army, visited the US White House as a guest of Pres. Kennedy.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A Cool

1964 Oct 24, Belgian paratroopers liberated 1,000 white hostages in Stanleyville (Kisangani, Congo).
(MC, 10/24/01)

1964 Oct 27, Congo rebel leader Christopher Gbenye held 60 Americans and 800 Belgians.
(MC, 10/27/01)

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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara)

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.”
(www.briefbio.com/pages/2974/Seko-Mobutu-Sese.html)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.95)

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 uncovered.”
(SFC, 10/28/96, p.A Cool

(SFC, 12/18/96, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A16)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.61)

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].
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Mulele)

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.
(http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2974/Seko-Mobutu-Sese.html)

1972 Mar, In Zaire (CongoDRC) the Trico II nuclear research reactor went on line.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A4)(www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/congo/index.html)

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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko)

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, 10/30/97)

1975 Nov 20, An interim report by the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to assassinated Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered CIA activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)

1976 In Zaire (later Congo) the Ebola virus was discovered and named after a river there.
The virus 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.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.A5)

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.
(SSFC, 1/20/02, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nyiragongo)

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.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A10)(http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id99.htm)

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. (http://africanhistory.about.com/od/may/a/td0504.htm)

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 and Zaire.
(SFC, 9/8/97, p.A Cool

(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 Arabia.
(www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.html)

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. cooperation.
(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 Ethnic cleansing occurred in Congo’s Kasai Province.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A22)

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.
(AP, 7/14/99)

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, p.C3)

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 virus.
(AP, 5/9/00)

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, 11/13/01, p.A14)

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 eastern Zaire.
(WSJ, 5/17/96,p.A-1)

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 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 Rwanda.
(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.A Cool

1996 Oct 28, In Congo some 420,000 refugees were crowded into the Mugunga Camp as fighting expanded.
(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.A Cool

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 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.3 Cool

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 move.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A Cool

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.A Cool

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 wa Dondo.
(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 multiparty elections.
(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.A Cool

1997 Apr 5, In Zaire rebels agreed to allow a UN airlift of some 80,000 Rwandan refugees back to their homeland.
(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 Shaba province.
(SFC, 4/8/97, p.A Cool

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 anticipated results.
(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 return.
(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 Zaire.
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, 5/17/9 Cool

1997 May 29, In Congo Kabila took a presidential oath of office and presented a timeline for future elections.
(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.A Cool

(AP, 9/7/9 Cool

(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 killed.
(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.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A22)

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.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B5)

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 stations.
(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.A Cool

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 appeal.
(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.A Cool

(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.A Cool

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 downriver.
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.A Cool

(WSJ, 8/24/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/18/03)

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 southwest.
(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 for peace.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, p.A11)(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A Cool

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 rebels shot down a Boeing 727 following takeoff from Kindu. Airline officials said there were 38 passengers, mostly women and children. Rebels claimed the passengers were soldiers.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A15)

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.A Cool

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 2.
(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. Kofi Annan.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)

1998 Dec 15, Congo rebels claimed to have killed 47 Zimbabwean troops fighting for Kabila at Kabala.
(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 Congo.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.4 Cool

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 famine.
(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 Kinshasa.
(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 the report.
(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.D Cool

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 Coalition.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.C12)(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A Cool

1999 May 19, In Congo the rebel Congolese Democratic Coalition named Emile Ilunga as their new leader.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A13)

1999 May 28, Rwanda declared a unilateral cease-fire in Congo where it was backing rebels to oust Pres. Kabila.
(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 Miba.
(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)

[b]1999[/b] 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 Ilunga.
(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.A Cool

1999 Aug 17, Rwanda and Uganda agreed to an immediate truce to 4 days of fighting in Kisangani, Congo.
(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 suspecte