sources: AllAfrica, Africa Infodoc, Le Soir
December 10 2002
-Power-sharing talks between the government of the DRC and its opponents have been resumed in Pretoria (SA).
December 11 2002
- Tanzania has withheld a shipment of coltan from Rwanda on suspicion that is was illegally obtained from the Congo. The Tanzanian embassy in Kinshasa has asked the Congolese government to confirm if the coltan belong to Rwanda so that Tanzania could okay the shipment.
-International donors, assembling in Paris, have promised $ 2,5 billion aid to the Congolese government. Congo will also become one of the High Indebted Poor Countries eligible for debt relief.
December 13 2002
-A session of the DRC-Zimbabwe joint commission on military and economic cooperation ended with an agreement to work together in new areas like the medical, meteorological, geological, air services, road transport, in land waterways, tourism and hotel management.
-Militia groups of the Mayi-Mayi have threatened to resume fighting if the text of a power-sharing agreement in Pretoria is adopted.
-Human Rights Watch said that RCD rebels should immediately lift the ban on Radio Maendeleo, an independent radio station in Kivu. RCD closed down the radio and arrested the director Kizito Mushizi and the head of operations Omba Kamengele because a program by Maendeleo on the recent introduction of RCD license plates for cars. These plates are recognized by Rwanda but not by the DRC government. The local residents reject them as a symbol of continued Rwandan occupation.
December 17 2002
-The Congolese warring parties signed an all-inclusive power-sharing deal to establish a government of national unity. Under the agreement Joseph Kabila will remain in office for the next two years until elections. He will be assisted by 4 vice-presidents, resp. representing the government, the RCD-Goma, the MLC and the unarmed political opposition. There will be 36 ministers and 25 deputy ministers, a 500-member National Assemblee and a 120-member Senate. The accord provides for a Higher Defence Council (Conseil Superieur de la Defence) to be chaired by the President. An integrated national police force will provide security. The accord was signed under supervision of the President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki, and Kofi Annan's Special Envoy in the DRC Moustapha Niasse.
December 26 2002
-The UN Security Council has expressed deep concern about the serious human rights violations and the displacement of tens of thousands of people in Ituri. It called on the rebels of the MLC and the RCD-N to cease the offensives and to meet with the RCD-ML. The Security Council also condemned the fighting between RCD-Goma and armed groups in Uvira, South Kivu.
December 30 2002
-Leaders of the rebel forces of the MLC, RCD-N and RCD-ML began discussing in Gbadolite (province of Equateur) a ceasefire proposal tabled by MONUC, in the presence of the ambassadors of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as those of Belgium and South Africa.
January 2 2003
-At least 130 000 people has been displaced around the towns of Beni and Lubero (North-Kivu), 23 000 from Oicha, 40 800 from Mangina, and the remainder from Rengeti and other neighbouring locations.RCD-ML accused the MLC of attacking its positions and MLC had accused the RCD-ML of attacking its ally, the RCD-N. According to the UN there are 2. 27 displaced people in the RDC; 20 million people are suffering from the war.
January 6 2003
-During his visit to the Congo, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel has urged the government and militia groups to implement the Pretoria power-sharing agreement without delay.
January 9 2003
-MONUC announced it had opened investigations into reports of cannibalism and human rights violations by rebels near the northeastern town of Beni. The bishop of Beni-Butembo, Melchisedec Sikuli Paluku, and human rights activists have accused the MLC of Bemba and its ally, the RCD-N, of practising cannibalism.
-Belgian judicial authorities are investigating possible money-laundering activities linked to ore (gold, diamonds and coltan) trafficking by the Congolese minister for planning, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba.
-The Congolese government has launched its national diamond certification programme as part of its participation in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
-Ugandan general Salim Saleh said to have reconciled the warring Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in Ituri. Under the terms of the agreement signed in Arua (Uganda), the Bunia-based rebel group UPC (Hema) and the Lendu militia of Mbusa's RCD-ML agreed to cease hostilities. Interestingly, it was the same day the leader of UPC, Lubanga, was in Kigali where he signed an agreement with the Rwanda-backed RCD. UPC controls the gold-rich Ituri province that borders Uganda.
-The UN estimates there are 13 000 foreign fighters in Congo, 12 000 Rwandans, the rest Ugandans and Burundians. In Lubero is opened a demoblisation centre and 750 rebels are repatriated till now.
January 13 2003
-Partnerschip Africa Canada says in a nes report that there is a strong likelihood that conflict diamonds from the DRC are being laundered through Central African Republic,
-The spokesman of the RCD-N, Siwenda Kahasa, says that RCD-ML of Mbusa receives military support from the DRC government and accuses him for shielding Roger Kabanda, leader of the Ugandan rebel group ADF.
January 14 2003
-MLC-leader Bemba has arrested five of his soldiers accused of committing human rights violations in Ituri, among others Freddy Ngalimo, the head of the military operations in Ituri.
January 15 2003
-A UN investigation has confirmed reports of serious human rights abuses perpetrated by soldiers of the MLC and RCD-N in Ituri. Corroborating testimonies reveal systematic looting and rape as well as summary executions, mutilations and cannibalism. The UN team interviewed 368 people during two weeks spent in Mangina and Oicha.
January 17 2003
-The Congolese government asked the UN Security Council to establish a UN criminal court to try rebel groups accused of committing atrocities, including genocide, in northeast Congo.
January 21 2003
-Vital Kamerhe, DRC's commissioner-general in charge of peace in the Great-Lakes region, has asked the USA to exercise pressure on Rwanda and Uganda so that these two countries stop their support of Congolese rebels. He was speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C.
January 23 2003
-The leader of rebel group UPC, Thomas Lubanga, have demanded the UN to order the withdrawing of the Ugandan army from Bunia.
-Amos Namangi Ngongi, special representative of Kofi Annan in the Congo, announced that peace talks aimed at ending the fighting in Ituri could begin by the end of February. He hopes that than the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC) will get off the ground.
-Dissident UPDF officer Col. Samson Mande is organising a rebel force in the DRC. The name of the group is: People's Redemption Army (PRA).
January 24 2003
-The UN Security Council decided to ask for a new six-month mandate for the Panel of Experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth in the DRC.
January 25 2003
-The special Revenue Protection Services (SRPS) has impounded 15 tonnes of minerals smuggled form Congo. It comprises coltan, wolfram and lead.
January 26 2003
-Rwanda denies that it has sent Hutus released by the judicial gacaca system to Congo. They were being sent to continue working gold and coltan mines for Rwanda in the Kivu's, according to the Congolese government.
January 27 2003
-The EU has given the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) a total of $ 3.7 million to help the Congolese government improve food security via three projects. The first aimes to help the "Institut National pour l'Etude et la Recherche Agronomiques (INERA)" carry out research and development. This project will target 6 provinces: Bas-Congo, Kinshasa, the 2 Kasai, North and South Kivu. The second seeks to reach a total of 30 000 households in conflict frontline areas: Equateur and in the regions of Goma, Kabinda, Kalemie, Kananga and Kisangani. It concerns among others the restart of agricultural production. The third is necessary for the distribution of food for displaced people.
January 28 2003
-The UN has opened a Humanitarian Information Center in Goma for the exchange of vital information among humanitarian actors operating in eastern Congo in order to better the coordination of aid.
January 31 2003
-The EU parliament called for concrete measures to punish persons found guilty of pillaging the resources of Congo, including the investigation by the International Criminal Court into acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
-The Worldbank has allocated $ 40 million in support of the work of six health-sector ngo's in the Congo. The 6 ngo's signed an agreement with the "Bureau Centrale de Coordination (BCeCo)", the government body charged with the execution of international aid project. The financing by World Bank is part of the "Programme Multisectoriel d'Urgence de Rehabilitation et de Reconstruction (PMURR).
February 1 2003
-The Porter-Commission has finished his report on the plunder of DRC by Ugandans named in the UN Experts-Panel reports.
February 3 2003
-A commercial cargo barge has arrived in Kisangani from the capital Kinsahsa. A priest in the city, abbé Jean-Pierre Badidike, says that the barge had arrived on 27 January with 550 mt of goods for the local Catholic mission, a bakery and a palm oil factory. It arrived at a time when the RCDhas seized a consignment of humanitarian items bound for the ngo's "Paix-sur-Terre".
-MONUC reported having received alarming information regarding troop movements in eastern Congo. The Rwandan army is active in Ituri, while the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) has battalions supporting various Congolese rebel factions fighting in Ituri. There are also uniformed Rwandan soldiers in the Kivu's. Meanwhile there are preparations for a meeting between Kabila and Museveni of Uganda to start the Ituri Pacification Commission.
February 6 2003
-Moustapha Niasse, the special envoy of Kofi Annan, has said a transitional government could be in place between the end of March and early April. He arrived in Kinshasa to help the signatories of the Pretoria accord creating mechanisms for the implementation of the agreement.
February 7 2003
-To date, MONUC has organized the return of 850 former Rwandan combatants and their dependents.
February 11 2003
-President Museveni en President Kabila met in Dar-es-Salaam to review the implementation of the Luanda Accord signed in Angola in september 2002. The two presidents have agreed with the start of the Ituri Pacification Commission. The IPC would have two representatives each from Congo, Uganda and MONUC and four representatives from other stakeholders in Ituri.
February 13 2003
-South African company Eskom has created the power supply company Westcor that will harness the hydroelectric potential of the Congo River. Westcor would be a joint venture of Eskom, Botswana Power Corporation, Nampower of Namibia, Empresa Nacional de Electricodada of Angola and the Societe Nationale d'Electricite du Congo, as well as all the members of the Southern African Power Pool of the SADC.
-Two top UN officials informed the UN Security Council about the military situation and the deteriorating human rights conditions in Northeastern Congo. Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said that thousands of peoples were displaced. Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commisioner for Human Rights, said consideration should be given to the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to look into the human rights violations.
-The World Bank is ready to discharge 80% of the debt of the Congo, that is more than $ 10 billion. Congo will be also be qualified for the programm "Post-conflict financial help". World Bank has further promised a total of $ 25 million to restructure Gecamines.
February 17 2003
-A coalition of Belgian ngo's has criticised the final report of a Belgian senatorial commission into the illegal exploitation of natural resources of the Congo. All Belgian diamond traders, banks and companies are exonerated of any illegal or unethical practices without even being named.
-Pygmies in Ituri have asked the government for protection.
February 18 2003
-A trial of 27 soldiers of the MLC accused of committing acts of cannibalism has started in Gbakolite (Equateur). The Congolese government rejects this process planning to bring the rebels for the International Criminal Court.
-The peace process in Ituri is reported because the recalcitrance of the rebel group UPC.
-The Porter commission that investigated the plundering of Congolese richess by Ugandan military and other top functionaries has recommended to reprimand Army Commander James Kaznin and other senior UPDF officers. Salim Saleh and his wife Jovia Akadwanaho are the key actors in the alleged smuggle of Congo diamonds.
February 24 2003
-A UN inter-agency mission in Congo has said there is an urgent need to extend humanitarian support to estimated 2.7 million internally displaced people.
-A senior official of the UPC, Kawo Panga, has broken off to form a new camp backed by Uganda. His group is named "Force pour l'Integration et Paix dans l'Ituri (FIPI)".
February 26 2003
-The French Under Minister for Cooperation and Francophonie, Pierre-André Wiltzer, who is visiting Kinshasa, said to have assurances from the RCD-Goma for the reopening of the Congo river
-The members of the UN Security Council voiced their concerns at the abuses of human rights in the Congo.
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
chronicle 38, january 15 - march 18 2001
chronicle 39, march 19 - may 20 2001
chronicle 40, may 21 - july 15 2001
chronicle 41, july 16 - october 8 2001
chronicle 42, october 9 - december 15 2001
chronicle 43, december 16 2001 - march 3 2002
chronicle 44, march 4 2002 - may 26 2002
chronicle 45, may 27 2002 - september 8 2002
chronicle 46, september 9 2002 - december 9 2002