Simple directory > Regional > Democratic Republic of Congo

Country : Democratic Republic of Congo Official name: République Démocratique du Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) (DRC) Head of State: Interim President Major General Joseph Kabila (appointed 25 Jan 2001) (in Dec 2002, the DRC government signed a peace deal with the two main rebel groups: Joseph Kabila is to remain president until elections) Head of government: Interim President Major General Joseph Kabila Ruling party: Transitional government (installed 30 Jun 2003; in Aug 2004, Tutsi-led RCD-Goma left the government.) Area: 2,345,409 square km Population: 58.78 million (2004) Capital: Kinshasa Official language: French Currency: Congolese franc (Cf) Exchange rate: Cf418.00 per US$ (Nov 2004) (currency floated 28 May 2001) GDP per capita: US$90 (2003) GDP real growth: 5.00% (2003) Labour force: 14.51 million (2003) Inflation: 9.10% (2003) Balance of trade: -US$223.00 million (2003) Foreign debt: US$12.90 billion (2003)

Historical profile

The thirteenth century saw the rise of the Kongo empire, which covered northern Angola and western Congo.

1482 Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao became the first European to visit the country and the Portuguese subsequently formed ties with the Kongo empire.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the British, Dutch, Portuguese and French bought slaves from the Kongo empire.

1870 King Leopold II of Belgium decided to colonise the Kongo empire.

1879–87 British explorer, Henry Stanley, established Belgian authority over the Congo basin.

1884–85 European governments recognised Leopold's claim to the Congo basin.

1885 Leopold established the Congo Free State.

1891–92 Belgium conquered Katanga.

1892–94 Belgium conquered eastern Congo, which was controlled by Arab and east African merchants.

1908 The Belgian state annexed Congo.

1959 A nationalist uprising based in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) began the disintegration of Belgian colonial authority.

1960 Congo gained independence. The Belgian community fled and there were few professionals left to run the government. Chaos ensued as the diamond and copper mining province of Katanga attempted to secede under the leadership of Joseph Tshombe.

1961 Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was deposed and murdered, allegedly by Katangan separatists. Marshal Joseph Mobutu was appointed prime minister by President Kasavuba. UN soldiers began disarming the Katangese soldiers on behalf of the Kasavuba government.

1963 Tshombe agreed to end the Katangan separatist war.

1964 Kasavuba dismissed Mobutu and appointed Tshombe as prime minister.

1965 Mobutu seized power after a coup.

1971 Congo was renamed Zaïre. Joseph Mobutu renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko.

1973–74 Mobutu nationalised foreign firms and forced foreign investors out of the country.

1977 French, Belgian and Moroccan troops fought an attack on Katanga by Angolan rebels.

1989 Zaïre defaulted on its debt servicing to Belgium, leading to a suspension of development programmes.

1990 Mobutu ended the ban on political parties and appointed a transitional government, the High Council of the Republic (HCR).

1991 President Mobutu presided over a series of short-lived governments, edging towards a national conference and multi-party elections.

1993 Rival pro- and anti-Mobutu governments were formed

1994 The National Assembly and the HCR were reconstituted as a single body, known as the High Council of the Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) (730 members). The HCR-PT endorsed a Transitional Constitutional Act, which defined regulations between the government and president, and which entrusted the HCR-PT with the task of overseeing the government's activities.

1995 The general elections were postponed and the transition period was extended for a further two years.

1997 President Mobutu fled to Togo when Laurent-Désiré Kabila's Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération (AFDL) (Alliance of Democratic Forces for Liberation) seized Kinshasa after a seven-month campaign against Mobutu's rule. Kabila was backed by Tutsi rebels and the Rwandan government. Zaïre was renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kabila declared himself president, giving himself wide powers. All government institutions were dissolved; Kabila announced that the HCR-PT was to be replaced by a constituent assembly, to draft a new constitution. Mobutu Sese Seko died in Morocco.

1998 The Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) (Congolese Democratic Coalition) was formed, with the support of Tutsi leaders in Rwanda and Burundi along with the Ugandan government, with the aim of overthrowing Kabila. A full-scale civil war broke out. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola came to the aid of the Kabila government. Peace talks began in Zambia's capital Lusaka, but broke down.

1999 Ernest Wamba dia Wamba led a breakaway from the RCD, forming the Mouvement pour la Libération Congolaise (MLC) (Movement for Congolese Liberation). The governments involved in the war signed a cease-fire followed by the MLC and the RCD. Wamba announced the creation of his own government in the north-eastern city of Bunia. Renewed fighting broke out between the DRC government forces and the RCD and MLC rebel groups in the north-west, although all parties still claimed to be committed to the cease-fire.

2000 The UN Security Council authorised a 5,500-strong UN force to monitor the cease-fire. Kabila appointed a Legislative and Constituent Assembly-Transitional Parliament (LCA-TP) and said that UN peace monitors could be deployed in the country. The DRC government and rebel groups signed an agreement in Harare, Zimbabwe, to withdraw their troops from frontline positions. Foreign governments involved in the conflict agreed to withdraw their forces.

2001 President Laurent Kabila was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. His son, Major General Joseph Kabila, was appointed interim president.

2002 Mount Nyiragongo erupted, pouring lava through the town of Goma. Uganda sent troop reinforcements to the DRC to quell ethnic fighting. The government signed a power-sharing deal with the MLC, but the most powerful RCD faction refused to sign. The presidents of Rwanda and the DRC signed a peace deal – the first step towards ending the DRC's four-year war. The DRC government signed a peace deal with the two main rebel groups.

2003 An accord signed on 2 April provided for setting up a two-year transitional government to lead the country to its first democratic elections since independence from Belgium in 1960, with Joseph Kabila heading the transitional government, assisted by four vice-presidents, representing the opposition, the government and the two main rebel groups. The installation of the government was deferred; a transitional government was installed on 30 June.

2004 In July, President Joseph Kabila reshuffled his power-sharing cabinet. In August, the massacre of 160 mostly Tutsi DRC refugees in Burundi prompted renewed warnings of war and the Tutsi-led RCD-Goma, the former main rebel group during the DRC's civil war, suspended its participation in the power-sharing government.

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