Sources: Le Soir, allAfrica, AfricaInfodoc
January 16 2001
-It is reported that Kabila has been shot down in his palace. Immediately after this report Kabila's aide-de-camp Eddy Kapend speaking on TV calls on the population to be quiet. He commands the army to stay in the barracks and forbids moving. Only Thursday January 18 the Congolese government has officially affirmed the death of President Kabila. He is said to be murdered by a bodyguard, Rachidi Kasareke. Some residents of the Kivu province are arrested in connection with the assassination of Kabila; after some weeks Kapend will also be arrested pending the murder investigations. The Congolese government appoints the son of Kabila, Joseph Kabila, as the successor of his father.
January 18 2001
-Some Congolese rebel groups (the MLC of Bemba, the RCD of Mbusa and Tibasima and the RCD Nationale of Roger Tumbala) discern to the formation of a united front: the Front de Liberation Congolais. Jean Bemba will be the leader of this group.
January 19 2001
-In Northeast Congo clashes take place between the Hema and the Lendu, while in the city of Bunia more than 150 civilians are murdered. The Hema ethnic group is supported by Ugandan soldiers.
-The French President Chirac condemns the illegal and unacceptable occupation of Congo. He has no objections to economic sanctions against countries like Uganda and Rwanda. Chirac was talking on the French-African summit in Yaounde (Cameroon).
January 23 2001
-Funeral of President Kabila. A furious crowd accuses the attending blanks (Belgian journalists and the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs) to be the cause of Kabila's dead.
January 25 2001
-It is reported that an extra number of 10 000 soldiers, namely 4000 Ugandans and 6000 Rwandans, lately has invaded Congo. The Ugandans has been stationed in Bunia and the Rwandans are moving to Kindu from which place they will be divided over several fronts in Katanga: Kabinda, Moba, Kalemie and Pete. The total number of Ugandan and Rwandan troops in Congo is estimated at 20 000.
Immediately after Kabila's dead 6200 Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean troops have been sent to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi to reinforce the security. The allied troops now have a strength of 20 000 man.
-The OAU has appointed the Kenyan Njuki Mwaniki as head of the Joint Military Commission replacing the Algerian Rachid Lallali.
-A son of Lumumba, Roland Lumumba, has brought a charge against Belgium because of the assassination of his father in 1961.
January 26 2001
-Joseph Kabila is sworn in as president of Congo. In his speech he says desiring to restore the unity of his land, but he insists on the departure of the aggressors and further he opens himself to a free national dialogue. He also promises the liberalisation of the economy. The dollar would again circulate freely and there'll be instituted an transparent mining investment code.
-The UN representative in Congo, Kemal Morjane, announces the meeting in New York of all belligerent parties on February 21.
January 27 2001
-A last month published UN report Uganda is mentioned as a country that probably deals with the sale of illegal diamonds. A range of countries must be examined nearer, notably Uganda, CAR, Ghana, Namibia, Congo-Brazzaville, Mali, Zambia and Burkina-Faso, in connection with the establishment of a viable diamond control system. The USA has brought in a resolution of a weapon, diamond etc. embargo against Liberia.
January 29 2001
-Joseph Kabila will visit Washington next Tuesday the first of February where he is invited by the American government. Friday he will meet UN secretary general Kofi Annan in New York.
January 31 2001
-The Congolese minister of Foreign Affairs, Leonard Okitundu, calls on the international community to investigate the human rights violations in East Congo by Uganda and Rwanda. He directed his appeal to the UN Security Council, the UN High Commission on Human Rights, the EU, the OAU and the Commonwealth. He also wants an investigation to the plundering of Congolese commodities and the illegal mining exploitation by neighbour states.
-Kabila made on his journey to the US a stopover in Paris where he talked with President Chirac. In Washington he has a meeting with President Bush, US secretary of State Colin Powell and American Security Council president Condoleezza Rice.
February 3 2001
-In Washington Joseph Kabila also met with President Kagame of Rwanda. Kabila stressed upon the total departure of the Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundian armies. He also declares to be ready for the fulfilment of the Lusaka peace accord. During a meeting with the Corporate Council on Africa (American businessman interested in Africa) Kabila promised to open his country to the international free market. He announced the cancellation of the diamond monopoly by the Israeli firm IDI-Congo. Returning to Congo Kabila visited Brussels to meet with Belgian first minister Verhofstadt and minister of Foreign Affairs Michel. He is also received by the Belgian king Albert. The EU representative for the Great Lakes Region, Aldo Ajello, talks with him again in Brussels. Ajello had a meeting with Kabila in Kinshasa earlier and he estimates Kabila's open mind very well.
February 5 2001
-President Kagame is criticised in the US by Africa experts and human rights organisations because of his national policy and the offences committed by his soldiers in the occupied zones of Congo. David Newbury, a North Carolina professor, accuses the Rwandans of plundering and illegal exploitation of the Congolese minerals. A Rwandan group, Liprodhor, is criticising the human rights violations in Rwanda and is talking about continuing disappearances and murders.
February 6 2000
-The inflation of the Congolese Franc has risen to 531% in 2000. In 1999 the inflation was 360%.
February 7 2001
-Museveni says to be ready to leave Congo if the international community stops to blackmail his country speaking about sanctions.
February 13 2001
-IMF and Worldbank representatives intend to visit Congo from 23 February till March 15.
-Some 500 Mayi Mayi fighters have surrendered to the RED rebel group. They decided to do so in the meaning that the war has no sense anymore after the dead of Kabila.
February 14 2001
-A conference takes place in Windhoek (Namibia) of 26 countries involved in the diamond trade. They determine the institution of a task force to analyse the different control systems of international diamond import and export.
February 15 2001
-The UN secretary general has published a report about the number of displaced persons in Congo. It concerns some 2 million people:
North-Kivu: 640 000 displaced
South-Kivu: 350 000
Katanga: 305 000
Equateur: 300 000
16 million Congolese people lack the more essential foodstuff.
-A meeting takes place in Lusaka of the leaders in the Congo war, but the presidents of Rwanda and Uganda did not come. Kabila accepts Ketumile Masire as facilitator in the inter-Congolese conflict. He also admits the UN to send its 500 observers, who will be stationed on 4 places in Congo by 26 February.
February 21 2001
-The UN Security Council agrees with resolution 1341 concerning the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Congo. A first disengagement of troops must start on March 15 with the removal over a 15 km distance. The UN troops (MONUC) will control this withdrawal. The belligerents have to work out a plan for the total departure on May 15. MONUC will contain 3000 man (not 5500 as earlier planned); a part of them are observers, namely 500.
Uganda says to remove 2 battalions at the moment from Equateur (some 1500 man).
Rwanda says to leave Pweto by February 28 removing 200 km to the North.
-Mandela wants to organize a summit about Burundi on February 28. Joseph Kabila is one of the state leaders he invites to attend this meeting.
February 23 2001
-Zambian firm Mopani Copper Mines wants to associate with Gecamines in order to exploit copper and cobalt in the border region of the two countries. Namibian Minister of Mining, Nyamu, has admitted that Namibia is exploiting a diamond mine in Congo together with an American company in the neighborhood of Tshikapa (Katanga).
February 26 2001
-EU Ministers are holding a conference about the Great Lakes region. They do not decide to a weapon embargo for the countries involved in the Congo war.
February 28 2001
-The governor of the Congolese Central Bank, Jean Claude Masangu, insures the entrepreneurs that there will be no more restrictions to foreign currency transactions, except for the payment of locations, school fee, medical care and electricity and water.
-Minister of Oil, Anatole Bishikwabo, has appointed a committee to investigate the liberalization of the oil-section. In 1975 Congo produced some 30 000 barrels crude oil a day. But since the refineries do not satisfy the norms, Congo has to import oil for an amount of $ 8 million monthly.
-13 UN Observers has been sent to the Congo. They will be followed by another 37 observers making the total number 140. Eventually there will be 500 UN observers.
-Eddy Kapend has been arrested, together with general Nawej Yav, the commander of the military of Kinshasa. A commission is investigating their role in the assassination of Laurent Kabila.
March 5 2001
-Tshisekedi has asked the American Congress to support the peace progress in Congo. He presented a plan of 7 points, among other things: acceleration of the withdrawal of foreign troops, sending of an international peace-keeping force and pressure on Joseph Kabila to lift the prohibition of political parties.
March 7 2001
-The EU promises to Congo a humanitarian support of Euro 35 million.
-Masire announces the start of the inter-Congolese dialogue by the beginning of April.
-At the end of this month there will be a number of 1500 man MONUC troops in Congo, i.e. 208 from Uruguay, 540 from Senegal, 614 from Marocco and 200 from Tunesia. They will be stationed in Kananga, Mbandaka, Kalemie, Kisangani, Goma and Kinshasa.
-Le Soir has published an extended interview with Joseph Kabila. He points out that foreign aggressors have killed millions of people in East-Congo and he notices that these slaughters do not receive any attention of the international community. In 1998 Congo had been proceeding to elections, but the outbreak of the war blocked this progress. First of all the Ugandans en Rwandans have to leave, before free party forming and free elections can take place.
March 8 2001
-A four-man Handicap International team from Belgium has arrived in Kisangani to help the cleansing of mines. Thousands of unexploded weapons and anti-personal mines have been left there by Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers after the clashes in June 2000.
March 10 2001
-Joseph Kabila has restructured the military command. Sylvestre Lwetsha becomes chief-of- staff, former Minister of Reconstruction Dieudonne Kayembe his aide-de-camp. Kazadi Nyembwe becomes the leader of the Agence National d'Intelligence. Col. Moya Dongo will be the aide-de-camp of Joseph Kabila replacing Eddy Kapend. The former mayor of Kinshasa Theophile Mbemba Fundu, becomes the chief of Kabila's cabinet. Kapend, who is arrested, had lately execute 11 Lebanese detainees.
March 13 2001
-Kabila has gone to visit some European capitals: London, Stockholm, Oslo and Brussels.
-IMF and Worldbank have visited Kinshasa. They stress the Congolese government to adjust the public finance and to master the hyperinflation.
-Clashes take place near Bolombo (Equateur) between troops of the government and the MLC-rebels.
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
chronicle 28, december 6 - january 24 1999
chronicle 29, january 25 - march 14 1999
chronicle 30, march 15 - may 9 1999
chronicle 31, may 10 - october 24 1999
chronicle 32, october 25 - january 9 2000
chronicle 33, january 10 - april 2 2000
chronicle 34, april 3 - june 25 2000
chronicle 35, june 26 - august 27 2000
chronicle 36, august 28 - october 29 2000
chronicle 37, october 30 - january 14 2001