18 August:
Controversy over military leader nominees resolved as RCD-Goma submits a revised list of candidates for top military posts; the previous list of candidates proposed by RCD-Goma provoked an outcry from Kabila and other members of the former Kinshasa government, as well as from the International Committee to Accompany the Transition (known by its French acronym CIAT) because of its inclusion of individuals suspected of involvement in the assassination of late president Laurent-Desire Kabila, Joseph's father, on 16 January 2001.
19 August:
Kabila names officers to lead the nation's unified national military, incorporating elements from all former armed rebel groups signatory to a national power-sharing accord, as well as Mayi-Mayi militias.
22 August:
In a memorandum of understanding signed at the end of talks in Kinshasa, Ituri militias agree to work with the newly-inaugurated transitional government in restoring state authority across the region.
22 August:
The National Assembly and Senate of DRC's two-year transitional government are opened by President Joseph Kabila and his four vice-presidents.
24 August:
Burundian rebels of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) allegedly kill at least a dozen people - mainly women and children - in Rusabagi, 85 km south of Bukavu in South Kivu Province.
26 August:
Human rights activists criticise the appointment of military officials alleged to have been involved in massacres in Kisangani during hostilities that erupted in May 2002, including Gabriel Amisi (alias "Tango Fort") and Laurent Nkunda, both from the RCD-Goma former rebel movement.
26 August:
Under Resolution 1501, UN Security Council authorises the EU-led multinational peace enforcement mission in Bunia to provide assistance to MONUC, as the former withdraws and the latter is reinforced and deployed in and around Bunia.
28 August:
Kabila submits a written declaration of his wealth to parliament, in accordance with the national transition constitution that came out of the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue.
28 August:
New WWF census finds a 95-percent decline in the hippopotamus population in Virunga National Park, on the eastern border of the DRC, once home to the world's largest hippo population.
31 August:
A failed mutiny takes place in Kisangani, Orientale Province.
31 August:
UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the DRC, Iulia Motoc, says there are indications that genocide may have occurred in Ituri.
1 September:
The French-led multinational force in Bunia hands over security duties to MONUC.
1 September:
Installation of leaders of DRC's unified national military is postponed. Although no official reason is given, military sources says that some officers from the RCD-Goma former rebel movement, now party to a power-sharing national transitional government, have not yet arrived in Kinshasa.
5 September:
The leadership of a newly unified national military is inaugurated in Kinshasa, although some debate remains as to what the new force will be called.
9 September:
DRC military chief of staff Lt-Gen Liwanga Mata Nyamunyobo summons three officers of the RCD-Goma - Brig-Gen Laurent Nkunda, colonels Elie Gichondo and Erick Ruhorimbere, who had been named commander and deputy commanders, respectively, of three of the country's 10 military regions - to appear before the Military High Court (Haute Cour Militaire) for having refused to take part in the inauguration of the newly-unified national army.
9 September:
Mayi-Mayi militias and soldiers of RCD-Goma begin reconciliation efforts in Burale, 60 km southeast of Bukavu in South Kivu Province.
15 September:
MONUC arrests about 100 people, including two major figures of the UPC, after fighting erupts during a protest of MONUC's "Bunia Without Arms" campaign.
17 September:
Military officials and members of parliament of RCD-Goma demand a general amnesty and security guarantees before reporting to Kinshasa.
20 September:
The national unity government announces it will be taking a number of measures to fight increased crime in Kinshasa and other cities across the country.
23 September:
Two rival militias in Bunia - the primarily Hema Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), and the primarily Lendu Front des Nationalistes Integrationnistes (FNI) - agree to allow the free circulation of people and goods in the region.
26 September:
The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC says it will investigate the role of businesses operating in Europe, Asia and North America in fuelling crimes against humanity in the DRC.
28 September:
Veteran opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi returns to Kinshasa after a self-imposed two-year exile spent largely in South Africa, but says he will not take part in the country's transitional government.
29 September:
Former rebel groups now party to the two-year power-sharing government of national unity are authorised to function as political parties while awaiting such a law to be enacted by the National Assembly.
1 October:
An agreement to cease hostilities between forces of Gen David Padiri Bulenda's Mayi-Mayi militia and the RCD-Goma former rebel movement - both now parties to the national power-sharing government - is signed in Shabunda, South Kivu Province. The accord calls for an immediate ceasefire, the free circulation of persons and goods, and the creation of a follow-up commission comprising three members from each of the two sides to monitor implementation of the agreement.
2 October:
Citing an inadequate number of domestic latrines and poor access to potable water as primary causes, the International Federation of the Red Cross warns of recurring outbreaks of cholera in Kasai Oriental Province and the city of Mbuji-Mayi, in particular.
6 October:
At least 55 people, most of them women and children, are killed in the Kashele area of Ituri District.
6 October:
16 civilians, primarily women, killed during an attack on the village of Ndunda, 30 km north of the town of Uvira, South Kivu Province. Witnesses tell MONUC that the killings were carried out by a group of 20 who spoke Kirundi, the national language of neighbouring Burundi.
8 October:
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declares that his country would not be drawn back into conflict in the DRC, regardless of whichever Ugandan rebels were using instability in the country's eastern provinces as a cloak for their activities.
9 October:
Ituri militias agree to the cantonment of their forces, a promise they have made on previous occasions.
9 October:
Eleven children are killed and 73 injured, 25 severely, when lightning strikes their school in the village of Bikoro, some 128 km south of the town of Mbandaka in northwestern DRC.
10 October:
First permanent deployment of MONUC forces beyond the town of Bunia begins.
16 October:
Government says it will no longer tolerate the presence on its national territory of elements of the Rwandan former army (ex-FAR) and Rwandan Hutu former militias (Interahamwe) who fled their country into neighbouring DRC after playing a major role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
20 October:
Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), an international media watchdog NGO, ranks the DRC among the 50 countries "that respect press freedom least".
21 October:
The International Committee to Accompany the Transition (known by its French acronym, CIAT) overseeing the two-year transitional process in the DRC chides the national unity government for a wide range of delays which, it said, "risked jeopardising the holding of nationwide elections within the next 24 months".
22 October:
Rwandan foreign minister Charles Muligande announces that his government will set up a commission of inquiry to investigate two cases of alleged illegal exploitation of the DRC's natural resources by Rwandan companies and individuals.
23 October:
Mbusa Nyamwisi, DRC minister for regional cooperation, confirms reports of the presence of Ugandan rebel training camps in his country's northeastern North Kivu Province, in the region between Beni and Kasindi.
28 October:
UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other forms of Wealth of the DRC releases its final report, listing names of individuals, companies and governments involved in the plunder of gems and minerals, and recommending measures to be taken to curb the exploitation.
See also the secret part of this report!
29 October:
Following several weeks of being denied access to RCD-Goma-controlled military camps in North Kivu, which it hoped would enable verification of the alleged presence of Rwandan troops on DRC territory, MONUC is granted access by North Kivu Governor Eugene Serufuli.
30 October:
Magistrates begin an indefinite nationwide strike, demanding better pay and working conditions, as well as greater independence of action.
3 November:
DRC's national programme against AIDS (Programme national de lutte contre le sida) says the prevalence of HIV/AIDS may have reached 20 percent in certain regions of the country.
5 November:
MONUC accuses government of blocking an inquiry into the crash landing of a cargo plane believed to have been transporting illegal arms to groups in South Kivu Province. The plane was reported to have crashed the previous week at the Kamina military base, in central Katanga Province.
7 November:
UK announces what it terms a "major increase" in financial aid to the DRC over the period 2003-06, "so long as the transition process remains on track".
7 November:
The International Court of Justice postpones hearings scheduled to open on 10 November in the case concerning "Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda)", at the request of the DRC government. Uganda said it supported the DRC's proposal.
15 November:
Voluntary return to neighbouring Rwanda of 103 members of the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR - Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda), including FDLR leader Paul Rwarakabije, after almost a decade in the DRC.
19 November:
UN agencies and partner NGOs request US $187 million to provide protection and aid to populations in the DRC in 2004, under the Consolidated Appeal Process.
22 November:
Some 2,000 people associated with Mayi-Mayi militias are demobilised in Kindu, eastern DRC, to either return to civilian life or to be integrated into the national army.
25 November:
Kabila reinstates 315 magistrates sacked en-masse in 1998 for striking over pay and independence of the judiciary.
25 November:
Between 100-200 people perish when a ferry collides with a fishing boat on Lake Mai-Ndombe, some 50 km from the town of Inongo, in Bandundu Province.
27 November:
DRC and Rwanda recommit themselves to complete the repatriation of Rwandan Interahamwe militia and former soldiers in the Congo within a year.
27 November:
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's younger brother - Reserve Force commander and army representative in parliament, Lt-Gen Salim Saleh - resigns amid persistent allegations that he spearheaded his country's plunder of natural resources in neighbouring DRC during nearly five years of Ugandan occupation.
11 December:
Journaliste en danger (JED), a national media watchdog NGO in the DRC, reports an "improving situation" with regard to freedom of the press in the country.
11 December:
UN Security Council urges the transitional national government to adopt a national disarmament, demobilization, reintegration (DDR) programme, and to accelerate reform of the armed and police forces.
14 December:
MONUC begins repatriating 250 Ugandan ex-combatants from rebel movements opposed to the Ugandan government, along with 147 dependents. MONUC hails the return as a "breakthrough in the normalisation of relations between Uganda and Congo", adding that it would be useful in convincing other Ugandan rebels still at large in eastern DRC to return.
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
chronicle 47, december 10 2002 - march 2 2003
chronicle 48, march 3 2003 - may 25 2003
chronicle 49, may 26 2003 - august 10 2003