DR Congo: Conflict Timeline.

1960 (June): After a year of anti-colonial riots, DR Congo gains independence from Belgium. Power is granted to Socialist Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba with Joseph Kasavubu as President.

1960 (July): In protest at the new government, the Congolese Army mutinies. Moise Tshombe declares the state of Katanga independent. The UN Security Council sends troops to establish order, but does not allow them to intervene directly in Congolese affairs.

1960 (Sept): Kasavubu sacks Lumumba as Prime Minister.

1961 : Just three months after being arrested, Lumumba is murdered. UN troops are deployed to disarm Katangese soldiers.

1963: Tshombe ends the Katanga succession.

1964: President Kasavubu appoints Tshombe as Prime Minister.

1965: Mobutu comes to power in a coup and begins a totalitarianist regime that attempts to rid the country of all Belgium influence.

1971: Mobutu renames himself as Mobuto Sese Seko and the country as Zaire.

1974: Mobutu nationalises all Zaire’s key mining interests and forces international organisations out of the country.

1989: Zaire defaults on loan payments from Belgium. This results in severe deterioration of the economy.

1990: Mobutu ends the ban on multiparty politics and appoints a transitional government. He continues to hold on to substantial powers.

1991: Mobutu agrees to a coalition government with opposition parties but retains control of the army and important ministerial departments.

1994: Kengo Wa Dondo, an advocate of free-market reforms, is appointed Prime Minister. Tens of thousands of Tutsis from neighbouring Rwanda flee the genocide and seek refuge in Zaire. Tutsi rebels take control of Rwanda. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 12,000 people die in a huge cholera outbreak in a Rwandan refugee camp in Eastern Zaire.

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1996: Whilst Mobutu is abroad for medical treatment, Tutsi rebel groups gain control of vast swathes of Eastern Zaire.

1997: Anti-Mobutu rebels, aided primarily by Rwanda, capture Kinshasa, Laurent Kabila is installed as President and renames the country the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is alleged that Mobutu has embezzled $4bn in aid since the 1970s.

1998: Uganda and Rwanda are outraged by Kabila’s purge of Tutsis from his government and back anti-Kabila rebels, who advance on Kinshasa. However, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia send troops to shore up Kabila’s regime. The rebels capture much of Eastern DR Congo.

1999: The six African states involved in the war sign a ceasefire accord in Lusaka. The following month the rebel movement fractures – MLC supported by Uganda and RDC supported by Rwanda, each sign the accords.

2000: The United Nations mission for Congo (MONUC) is authorised to monitor the ceasefire. The mission has a weak mandate and only 5,500 troops. It struggles to stop rebel fighting. The diamond industry launches the ‘Kimberley Process’ aimed at stemming the trade from war zones. In December, the UN backs a certification system to track the origin of rough diamonds.

2001: Kabila assassinated and succeeded by his son.

2001 (Feb): President Kabila meets Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Washington. Rwanda and Uganda, and the rebels agree to withdrawal plan from DR Congo.

2001 (May): It is estimated that the conflict has, directly or indirectly, killed 2.5 million people since 1998. The UN says the warring parties are deliberately prolonging the conflict in order to plunder gold, diamonds, timber and coltan.

2004: In Bunia, Ituri, rival militias clash and French troops intervene to protect civilians. The French have to intervene again when the last Ugandan troops withdraw, however this time it is because the UN mission fails to contain violence. Renewed allegations surface of sexual exploitation of women and children by MONUC peacekeepers.

2004 May/Jun: Rebel fighting in South Kivu, Eastern DR Congo, intensifies, whilst there is an attempted coup in Kinshasa. Widespread nationwide riots begin in protest at the UN’s failure to act. International aid agencies come under attack by angry crowds. The International Criminal Court (ICC) opens investigations on the DR Congo.

2005 (Jan/Feb): MONUC sets up an office to deal with the sexual exploitation allegations facing its peacekeepers. Nine Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers are killed in an ambush in Ituri.

2005 (May): Parliament agrees to a new constitution.

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2006: Eight UN peacekeepers are killed in the north-eastern province of Orientale.

2006: Free elections, the first in 40 years, make Kabila president. Meanwhile, the DR Congo Army clashes with the forces of General Laurent Nkunda (who is possibly backed by Rwanda) in North Kivu province, displacing thousands.

2007 (Jan): More than 100 civilians are killed during military crackdown on Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) in western province.

2007 (Feb): Renegade leader Nkunda begins to integrate his troops into the national army.

2007 (Mar): Fighting in Kinshasa between government troops and armed loyalists of opposition leader Bemba.

2007 (May): In South Kivu a massacre by the Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), takes place.

2007 (Aug): Nkunda turns against government forces again.

2008: A January Peace accord between Nkunda and government forces, breaks down again in August and fighting continues, displacing thousands.

2008 (Nov): A campaign by Nkunda to consolidate control over the East prompts a new wave of refugees, sexual violence and looting.

2008 (Dec): The UN Security Council approves a temporary increase of troops to assist the UN peacekeeping effort.

2009 (Jan): Nkunda is ousted by Bosco Ntaganda as head of the CNDP. Nkunda is arrested in Rwanda. Ntaganda agrees to stop the four-year insurgency and reintegrate into the army.

2009 (Feb): An earlier Rwanda-Congo offensive ends. Rwandan troops begin withdrawal.

2009 (Feb): NGO’s say that UN peacekeepers are failing to defend civilians.

2009: American-based Human Rights Watch accuses the Congolese army of war crimes against civilians in North Kivu. The government rejects the charges as “lies”.

2009 (Jun): The UNHCR appeals for $38m in emergency aid for one million people displaced following anti-FDLR operations.  The ICC orders ex-Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba to stand trial on charges of war crimes for his troops’ actions in Central African Republic between 2002 and 2003.  Various mutinies in eastern DR Congo due to soldiers complaining about lack of payment.

2009 (Aug): The head of MONUC Alan Doss claims the five months of combined army-UN operations (named ‘Kimia 2’) against Rwandan rebels have been “largely positive”.

2009 (Nov): Germany arrests two alleged FDLR leaders on suspicion of war crimes in Eastern DR Congo.

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2010 (May): The government increases the pressure for UN peacekeepers to quit before the 2011 elections. Meanwhile, UN humanitarian official John Holmes warns against this.

2010 (Jun): A top human rights advocate Floribert Chebeya is found dead one day after being summoned to meet the police chief. There are celebrations to mark the 50 years of independence from Belgian rule.

2010 (July): A UN human rights team has confirmed that members of two armed groups in the volatile east of DR Congo raped more than 150 women during an attack on a village in North Kivu province last month.

2010 (Aug): A debt relief deal worth $8billion is approved by the IMF/World Bank. A new electoral commission is launched in advance of the 2011 elections.

2010 (Aug): A diplomatic row rages over a draft UN report leaked to the press that accuses Rwandan President Kagame’s troops of massacring Hutu refugees who had fled to the DR Congo following 1994’s genocide in Rwanda. The Rwandan government reacts furiously and threatens to withdraw troops out of UN peacekeeping duties in protest.

2010 (Sep): Forensic experts examine mass graves in DR Congo to seek further evidence of a Tutsi-led genocide. The UNHCR and DR Congo government launch vast distribution of identity cards to refugees aimed at strengthening their rights.

2011 (Jan): The UN envoy dealing with sexual violence in conflict today called on the authorities of DR Congo to immediately investigate reports of a large number of rapes that occurred recently in the eastern province of South Kivu.

2011 (Jan): The trial of  Jean-Pierre Bemba is scheduled to resume on Tuesday, January 11, at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Bemba, stands accused of two crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging) allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) between October 26, 2002 and March 15, 2003.