Sources: NCN, Congonline, ACP, Africanews online
-During the meeting of the Worldbank with the Ugandan leaders it seems that the donors are discontent about the situation, especially the corruption and the war dispenses of the Ugandan government.
-France is lobbying at the UN Security Council to obtain support for a peace force in the DRC. The US is against this idea.
-President Kabila is visiting his colleague of Zambia Chiluba. The latter is the SADC peace intermediary and he has planned a summit on December 14 in Lusaka.
- The rebels of the RCD (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie) have no intention to stop the fighting in the near future. Their financial means are coming from mobutists who had been preparing the war before long from their residences in Europe and South Africa.
-Rebel leader Wamba dia Wamba reports that the RCD is transfering its capital from Goma to Kisangani. Ugandan president Museveni and Rwandan leader Kagame should have proposed the RCD to proclame the autonomy.
-Uganda is trying to improve the linking roads between Uganda, Rwanda and the part of East Congo, held by the rebels.
-The UN Security Council has delivered a statement without condemning the Ugandan and Rwandan agression. The UN accentuate the integrity of the Congolese territorium and support the mediation of Chiluba and the OAE proposition to place the war on the agenda of his next summit December 17
-The UN-information service IRIN communicates that in Kivu there are 125000 vulnerable people comprising a large number of displaced persons who are urgently in need of food. 40% of all health centers are destroyed. The human rights organisation ASADHO says that the rebels are conducting a campaign of repression with the aim to banish all human rights activists. More than 40000 people from Nyunzu have fled into the forests.
-President Chiluba of Zambia has decided to postpone the summit of 14 December. It is said that Mandela did not want to assist at the summit because the rebels had not been invited.
-There are still fightings near Moba. It is claimed that the town is in the hands of Burundian soldiers who are fighting for the rebels. The Zimbabweans should have left the airport that they had occupied earlier. At a distance of a few kilometers, at Pueto, there are heavy fightings of the rebels against militia of the Burundian CNDD, the Hutu opposition against president Buyoya of Burundi.
-MISNA makes mention of assassinations by the Tutsi-led rebel army in and around Goma: 34 persons in Ntamugenga, 18 in Nyabibwe, more than 10 in Tanga, 6 near the Institute Heri de Monigi, 8 in Kalungu and 5 in Goma. Also, people are deported to to Ruanda, after which nothing is heard of them.
-UN relief organisations appeal for humanitarian support of $314 million for the victims in the Great Lakes region. More than 1.4 million people live as displaced persons or refugees in these regions.
-The OAU, at this moment under the leadership of president Blaise Compaore of Burkina Fasso, intends to invite both Congolese parties, the government and the rebels, at its summit in Ouagadougou December 17 /18.
- At the place Kabalo (North Katanga) heavy fightings are taking place. The rebel soldiers want to receive their pay at the latest on December 17, otherwise they will start looting Bukavu. Some soldiers run over to the Forces de Resistance Populaire, the Mai Mai militia having its headquarters in Masisi. The Congolese rebel soldiers who stay in Butembo, Bunia and Beni, are also inclined to loot. These places are dominated by the Ugandans; the town of Uvira (South Kivu) is dominated by Burundians.
-A Zimbabwean superior officer, Alphonso Kufa, has been killed. Zimbabwean squadron commander Herbert Vundla was killed too, and the airforce commander Edson Sandle is missing.
-In Kinshasa a new decree on political parties has been published: to establish a party 120 co-founders , 10 for each province, are needed. Their stay must be in the concerning province. Economic and political criminals are excluded from establishing a party. (see the list of Kashamura attached to the draft constitution on March 29 1998) The contribution is 30 000 CF. Signatures of high placed persons are necessary.
- La Reference Plus also reports that the Congolese population is tired of the war. Its view is that negotiations are the best solution now. Kabila can not win this war while the agression is prepared by Rwanda and Uganda since a long time with the support of the US.
-According to ACP Kagame has integrated in his army Hutu genocidaires, detained before in prison, who are now fighting in Congo.
- The Lusaka summit is delayed to the next year.
-In November the DRC has exported about $ 40 million worth of diamonds. This means a reduction of 8.2% with respect to October. The copper prize has suffered a serious cut on the world market; it is $ 70.000/ton now. The cobalt prizes also are lower.
-In South-West of Uganda 3000 refugees have arrived from DRC because of the insecurity in the regions of Rutshuru and Goma.
-Cardinal Etsou has made an appeal to the international community to cooperate for peace in Congo, and to condemn the foreign powers that support Ruanda and Uganda.
-Rebels say to have conquered the city of Zongo at the border with the CAR. This is denied by the DRC.
-The UN condemns the mass murder of civilians in Makobola, a town South of Uvira. According to the catholic press agency MISNA in Rome, 500 people including women and children have been murdered on 31 December and 1 January in Makobola as a reprisal for an attack by the Mai-Mai.
-Mai-Mai and Burundese rebels have occupied Fizi in South Kivu. These militia are under command of Njobiola.
-The Congolese government has allegedly reconquered Moba (South Kivu) and Zongo (Equateur). The rebels say to controll Nyunzu (North Kivu) and Businga and Gemena (Equateur).
-Congolese human rights organisations have condemned the murder on 500 civilians in Makobola. They want the UN to start an investigation after this murder and others comparable cruelties like those in Kasika in August. They ask the UN to place an intervention force in East Congo in order to garantee the safety of the inhabitants.
-In the night of 10 to 11 January Kisangani has been bombarded by airplanes of the Congo coalition. Troops coming from the CAR have invaded the North of Congo with support of air attacks. Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the rebellion in the North, has fled to the more southern town Akula. According to Bembe the invaders are Sudanese, Chadian and Central-African soldiers. Ten-thousands of people are on flight, among others to the CAR.
- Bukavu was attacked by Mai Mai troops and militia of the former Rwandan army together with the Interahamwe.
-The Lusaka summit, which was planned on the 16th of January, is postponed. SADC ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence have still had a meeting in Lusaka. They have formed two committees: one security committee and one to prepare the cease-fire.
-In Luanda President Dos Santos has met his colleagues of Congo- Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa.
-On January 17 a conference was organised by president Nujoma in Windhoek. According to Nujoma the different parties, fighting in Congo, have decided to stop the war and to ask the UN stationing a peace force. The Congolese government and the rebels have not been represented at this conference.
-The New African (January 1999) has published an article about the arms trade to Central Africa.
chronicle 9, september 29 -october 12 1997
chronicle 10, october 13 - october 26 1997
chronicle 11, october 27 - november 9, 1997
chronicle 12, november 10 -november 23 1997
chronicle 13, november 24 -december 7 1997
chronicle 14, december 8 1997 - january 4 1998
chronicle 15, january 5 - january 18 1998
chronicle 16, january 19 - february 1 1998
chronicle 17, february 2 - february 15 1998
chronicle 18, february 16 - march 1 1998
chronicle 19, march 2 - march 15 1998
chronicle 20, march 16 - march 29 1998
chronicle 21, march 30 - april 26 1998
chronicle 22, april 27 - mei 10 1998
chronicle 23, mei 11 - mei 31 1998
chronicle 24, juni 1 - august 26 1998
chronicle 25, august 27 - september 28 1998
chronicle 26,september 29- october 31 1998
chronicle 27, november 1- december 5 1998