Democratic Republic of Congo Genocide

By sydnibillups

  • King Leopold

    1870s: King Leopold II of Belgium begins colonial project in central Africa

  • King gets own Congo property

    1885: King Leopold II formally acquires Congo territory as his own private property, naming it Congo Free State

  • Army

    1885-1908: Leopold and his army terrorize inhabitants in pursuit of resources. An estimated 10 million Congolese, half the population, die

  • Congo

    1908: Belgian parliament takes over Congo Free State from Leopold, renaming it Belgian Congo

  • mouvemont

    May 1960: Mouvemont National Congolais (MNC) party wins parliamentary elections. Patrice Lumumba becomes prime minister. Joseph Kasavubu is elected President.

  • Citizenship

    1981: Citizenship for Banyarwanda groups, mostly Tutsis, is restricted to those who could trace ancestry in Congo back to 1885. This reflected a desire to counter growing Tutsi economic power in the Kivu region

  • government

    1994: Rwanda's Hutu extremist government orchestrates genocide of approx. 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. After Tutsi rebels take control of Rwanda, over a million refugees flood into Congo, including Rwandan army soldiers and Hutu extremist Interhamwe militiamen complicit in the genocide

  • rebels

    August 1998: Rebels back by Rwanda and Uganda rise up against Kabila and take control of much of eastern DRC. Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola send troops to repel the rebels.

  • UN

    November 30, 1999: UN Security Council sets up 5,500-strong force to monitor the ceasefire, known as MONUC. Fighting continues between rebel and government forces, and between Rwanda- and Uganda-backed forces

  • 25 armed groups

    January 23, 2008: The government and 25 armed groups, including General Nkunda’s CNDP, sign a peace pact aimed at ending violence in the east

  • CDNP

    March 23, 2009: The CNDP signed a peace accord with the DRC government, which establishes them as an official political party and calls for the government to free captured rebels.

  • Passed law

    May 7, 2009: The DRC legislature passed a law granting amnesty for nearly two dozen illegal armed groups in eastern Congo, in accordance with its peace deal with the CNDP.

  • FDLR

    February 2009: The FDLR killed over 100 civilians in eastern DRC in retaliation for the joint Rwanda-DRC operation.

  • ICC

    June 11, 2008: ICC suspends the trial of Ituria militia leader Thomas Lubanga, due to withholding of significant evidence from the defense