Ethno-Net Database: Africa

Reports on Ethnic Relations / Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is mainly consisted of part, full or summaries of articles taken from newspapers.
La section suivante est essentiellement constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles issues de journaux .

Associating Africa with conflicts and backwardness is a favourite pastime of those who see nothing good on the continent, a notion fuelled by corruption and mismanagement of the crop of visionless post-independence leadership that has contributed to the underdevelopment of a region otherwise endowed with abundant human and material resources.

But dismissing a continent of some 700 million people as a basket case begs the question. The pragmatic approach is to address the root causes of the perennial wars and conflicts holding Africa down.

To this end, the just-released "World Report 2004," by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the suggestion by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for a monitor to help prevent future acts of genocide could not have come at a better time.

The summary of the Africa section of the 407-page HRW "World Report 2004: Human Rights and Armed Conflict," is that major world powers have denied the UN the capacity to respond effectively to Africa's wars and the rights violations that result from the conflicts.

It cited the "neglected" wars or conflicts to include those in Rwanda, DR Congo, Burundi, and the Central African Republic.

"...though Africa's former colonisers have sent troops in recent years to areas ravaged by conflict - including the 2000 British intervention in Sierra Leone and the ongoing French engagement in Cote d'Ivoire since late 2002 - the major powers have repeatedly made it clear that they will not make the necessary commitment to prevent the massive human rights violations in Africa that result from conflict," the report charged.

Generally at both international and continental levels, the report said the historical response to war in Africa has been "hand-wringing" when hostilities break out, but little if anything in the way of serious preventive action.

In most cases, as in Rwanda where more than 800,000 people were killed in an ethnic genocide in 1994, there are often obvious signs that war may be coming - in particular official policies that violate human rights through systematic discrimination and disregard for the rule of law, stolen
elections (if any are held at all), and impunity for gross abuses.

The part played by some foreign powers in the Rwanda pogrom, who either stood by or even abetted the killings, is well documented and so was the belated "regret" or "apology" offered by the international community over a genocide that was preventable.

Nonetheless, the condemnable world reaction to the Rwandan case is still being played out today in different forms.

From Angola to Liberia, DR Congo to Somalia, international response is underlined by neglect, belated action or a wait-and-see attitude.

Britain did intervene in Sierra Leone to boost the West African peacekeeping initiative, while the European Union went to DR Congo's Ituri,
and France is supporting the peace efforts in former colony Cote d'Ivoire.

But in most cases, much damage would have been done before the big powers at the UN give their grudging approval for often limited intervention in African conflicts.

However, when other parts of the world considered of strategic importance to the former colonisers are involved, world reaction is usually swift and very effective.

The stark conclusion is that Africa is only relevant when it is needed to support the former colonial powers in furthering their own interest.

For instance, some 54 African countries owe Western creditors an estimated 300 billion dollars, and even when it is obvious that much of these debts were contracted under dubious circumstances and that the debtor-nations are not in a position to repay, cancellation of the debts is not a popular consideration by the creditors.

Development assistance has since dried up and mobilising the international community to address Africa's problems such as HIV/AIDS suffers agonising foot-dragging, and even in some cases assistance is tied to unrealistic conditions.

Yet, in one fell swoop, the same rich nations that have been unable to raise five billion US dollars to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, which are killing millions in Africa, have virtually written off Iraq's 120 billion-dollar debt and are falling head over heel to roll out more billions for post-war reconstruction of that country after a controversial war.

In the final analysis, African States are left with no choicebut to take up the challenge at great costs and telling effects on the development of the continent.

As the HRW noted in its report, new continental institutions and policy frameworks are creating the political space needed to discuss openly the roots of conflict - the source of Africa's worst abuses - in threats to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union and initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), demonstrate the commitment of African leaders to address human rights and the conflicts plaguing the continent.

At the level of peacekeeping or peace enforcement military intervention in conflict-affected countries sponsored by African continental or sub-regional institutions is becoming a reality.

But Africa cannot go it alone.
Speaking at an international conference on genocide preventnon in Stockholm, Monday, Annan suggested that the UN consider appointing a Special Rapporteur on the Prevention of Genocide to report to the Security Council to take action when genocide is impending.

"Too many times, the world has stood by and watched as genocide was committed," declared the UN chief, who incidentally was head of UN peacekeeping department at the time of Rwanda's 1994 ethnic genocide.

While this suggestion is welcome, it is believed that the monitoring should go beyond genocide and address other potential conflicts through multilateral approach since no one country can go it alone, no matter how powerful or richly endowed.

The HRW noted in its report that despite the continued gloomy reality of much reporting from Africa, "the current moment is in fact one of hope for the continent."

While a quarter of Africa's countries were affected by conflict in 2003, several long-running wars have recently ended, including the 25-year war in Angola and "the opportunities presented by these new African regional initiatives - this moment of hope - should not be thrown away."

Yet, Africa as part of the international community, which often contributes to the well-being of other parts of the world, should not be left to deal with its own problems alone.

This is not to say that Africans should behave as if the rest of the world owes them a living. African leaders should enunciate popular programmes and policies that engender peace and stability founded on democratic principles and respect for human rights and rule of law.

That way the continent would have the moral justification to demand equal treatment from rich nations which should understand that crisis in any part of the world ought to evoke considerable if not equal concern and response from other parts, especially under the auspices of the United Nations, which was set up to promote world peace.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is Ghanaian, but that s not the only reason that a new centre for training African peacekeeping troops, has been opened in the capital of his own country.

Ghana has a long history of support for UN peacekeeping missions and has built up expertise in how to run them.

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre on the outskirts of Accra was built with the help of German aid money and opened its doors to a first intake of military officers and civilian officials from 15 different African states in November.

"Participants from the West African regional grouping, ECOWAS, [the Economic Community of West African States] get the first choice since the centre is meant to build capacity for the sub-region," Brigadier-General Charles Mankatah, the commandant of the new college, told IRIN.

The peacekeeping centre provides courses lasting two to four weeks on topics such as conflict management, peace support operations, governance and election monitoring. for peacekeeping operations.

It is aimed at junior and middle ranking officers up to the level of colonel who have to take operational decisions in the field.

The peacekeeping centre has also been designated to train officers for a permanent ECOWAS stand-by force, which has yet to be established.

According to Ghana Defence Minister, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, this force will enable ECOWAS to undertake rapid interventions in future hot spots in the conflict-prone region.

The first course, on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, attracted candidates from as far away as Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With the Americans and Europeans increasingly stretched in Iraq, Afghanisan and the former Yugoslavia, African governments are increasingly being encouraged to find their own solutions to conflicts on the continent.

Ghana has long been a key contributor to both ECOWAS and UN peacekeeping forces.

Over the last 40 years, it has taken part in 29 UN missions worldwide in which 98 Ghanaians have lost their lives. During the 1990's the country played a leading role in ECOWAS military interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The country presently has several hundred soldiers deployed in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire as part of a five-nation West African peacekeeping force in the country.

There are currently six major UN peacekeeping operations underway in Africa, the largest of which - Sierra Leone and Liberia - are both in West Africa, so the new centre has no shortage of candidates to train.

Germany was the largest single contributor to the establishment of the college, providing a grant of 3.1 million euros (US$4 million) to help build it. The official opening was therefore delayed until last Saturday to coincide with a visit to Ghana by German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder.

"This is what West Africa and Africa needs to solve its conflicts. This is your own project. Start it and we will continue to support you financially and with logistics," Henning Scherf, a member of the German delegation, said at the opening ceremony.

The peacekeeping centre has the capacity to run courses, sometimes concurrently, for 20 to 40 participants.

However this is set to increase. Britain, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands are jointly funding an expansion which is scheduled for completion in May 2004.

The names of all those who pass through the new peacekeeping centre will be placed on a database, so that organizations such as the UN can tap in to their expertise in the future.

Course fees range from US$2,400 to $4,200 per head, but the international community has already provided three-quarters of the entire training budget for this year.

Mankatah said the new centre in Ghana is designed to complement the training already provided for African peacekeepers at military academies in Nigeria and Mali.

The Nigeria War College provides high-level strategic training to senior political planners and policy makers. While in Koulikoro, Mali, the French government sponsors a tactical training centre for non-commissioned officers active at the implementation level.

"This centre" explained Mankatah "will basically complement those two institutions with training structured for middle-level management personnel," that is junior to middle ranking officers, civil servants and civilian middle management.

The concept of the peacekeeping centre in Ghana was first proposed in 1997. Kofi Annan, after whom it was named, was not present at the official opening ceremony.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called on African leaders to help transform the continent from one beset by "wars and crises" into one blessed with peace and prosperity. Speaking during his first visit to Africa as Germany's leader, he said on Monday that the continent was blighted by the greatest proliferation of armed conflicts in the world, wrecking the lives of millions.

"We all agree that freedom, prosperity and sustainable development can only be achieved in a secure environment," Shroeder stated in a speech delivered at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

His five-day tour of Africa where almost 300 million people live below the poverty line - started in Ethiopia, from where he will proceed to Ghana, South Africa and Kenya.

Schroeder stated that with the establishment of the AU and the New Partnership for Africa's Development the foundation was now in place to end the continent s conflicts. "On this foundation, Africa has a chance to finally benefit from the advantages of increasing global economic integration."

He went on to say that the powerful G8 was under a "moral" imperative to boost trade and development, a process which made both political and economic sense for the rest of the world. "No one can live in security if there is insecurity and strife in the neighbourhood," he stressed.

The EU has pledged 225 million (about US $275) to help peace initiatives on the continent, and Germany has backed peacekeeping-training centres in Africa.

Earlier, Schroeder had praised Ethiopia for its support in the fight against global terrorism and welcomed the country's contribution towards resolving regional conflicts, noting in this context that Ethiopian peacekeepers had been deployed in strife-ridden Liberia and in Burundi, currently emerging from a decade of civil war.

During a private meeting, he and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi discussed the stalled three-year-old peace process between Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea. Fears have been growing that without a breakthrough, tensions between the two countries could once again flare up into hostilities.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-year border war that ended in a peace deal in December 2000. Under the agreement an independent boundary commission was set up to resolve their border dispute and defuse the tensions between them.

But Ethiopia is contesting elements of the commission s ruling, one of which placed Badme, the town where the war first flared up, in Eritrea, and another that Ethiopia hand over parts of Irob. Ethiopia says the ruling could serve to ignite renewed conflict, and has called for a "broad-based dialogue" with Eritrea, which, for its part, has rejected such talks until the physical demarcation of the border begins.

"Like most countries, Germany believes that the decision of the boundary commission is legal and
binding," Meles told journalists. "Germany also believes that this problem should be resolved
peacefully and through dialogue," he added at a press conference in the National Palace in Addis Ababa.

"I completely agree with the chancellor on the need to avoid war by every means possible. I agree completely with the chancellor that this problem should be resolved by peaceful and peaceful
means only through dialogue and in a spirit of compromise," Meles said.

Shroeder s visit to Addis Ababa comes as Western powers are bringing mounting pressure to bear on both Ethiopia and Eritrea to end the deadlock.

Chris Mullin, the UK s Foreign Office Minister for Africa, is also currently visiting the two countries to address the border dispute.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto has just ended a
second visit to Ethiopia, after meeting Meles in a quest for a solution to the problem. Yamamoto also visited Eritrea and met President Isayas Afewerki in the same context.

Angola, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo have been co-opted into the preparatory process for an international conference for the Great Lakes, joining seven other core countries, the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the region reported on Tuesday.

The admission of the three countries was agreed upon at the end of a two-day meeting of national coordinators of the core countries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting had been called to discuss the criteria for membership into the regional conference's preparatory process.

In a statement, the office of Ibrahima Fall, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region, said the national coordinators also agreed that all the neighbouring states of the core countries were to become co-opted members of the conference.

"Angola and Congo took their seats in the hall immediately after their co-option," Fall's office reported. "Today's outcome put to rest the question of criteria for membership into the group of core countries."

The conference on the Great Lakes region, proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and supported by the African Union (AU), is due to deal with the region's peace, security, democracy and development. The core countries are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwandan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Any other country outside the region that is interested in the process would be welcome as observers, Fall's office said, adding that Egypt had requested to participate and had been granted observer status.

During their meeting, chaired by Fall and AU's Special Envoy Keli Walubita, the national coordinators agreed to "elaborate on the level of participation of the co-opted members but made it clear that they would not form a part of the decision body even though they could influence decisions," Fall's office reported.

"One of the outcomes of the meeting was the successful charting and adoption of a road map that will lead to the first heads of state summit to be held in Tanzania in November 2004 and the second my mid-2005," Fall's office said.

The year 2004 is set to be a momentous one in the Great Lakes region in terms of its peace prospects, if the achievements made in 2003 are anything to go by.

Across the region - right from Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Rwanda - the code words in 2003 seemed to have been transition to peace.

The UN and the African Union (AU), the continent's foremost political body, is making preparations for a regional peace and development conference, during which themes such as peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration, and humanitarian and social issues will feature. There are suggestions that the conference could be held in Tanzania in November.

In the course of 2003, the main rebel movement in Burundi signed a power-sharing agreement with the transitional government and was integrated into government institutions; a transitional government of national unity was installed in the DRC in June; the 15 March coup in the CAR saw the former army chief of staff ascend to power, resulting in a return to relative stability; and Rwanda, nine years after the 1994 genocide, held its first-ever democratic presidential and parliamentary elections.

The determination to move from years of turmoil to peace and democracy is most obvious in the DRC, the largest country in the region and the third-largest in Africa, where President Joseph Kabila is reported to be committed to sticking to the transitional government timetable to hold democratic elections in 2005.

Kabila's spokesman, Mulegwa Zihindula, told journalists on 8 January 2004 in the capital, Kinshasa, that the president was committed to organising elections on time and that he felt the move would greatly contribute to the building of a strong DRC.

News reports following Zihindula's announcement indicated that South African President Thabo Mbeki was due to start an official visit to the country on 9 January, a sign that the DRC is keen on resuming normal bilateral relations with other African states.

Under an agreement signed in April 2003 in Pretoria, South Africa, a power-sharing transitional government of national unity was installed in DRC in June, with Kabila and leaders of former rebel movements setting up government institutions that had been devastated by more than six years of civil war.

However, all is not smooth sailing, inasmuch as restoring order in such a vast country has proved to be a rather slow process. The eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, and Ituri District in Orientale Province in the northeast are still experiencing sporadic fighting, with Ituri largely remaining under the control of rival militias, although a strengthened UN peacekeeping force is gradually restoring security there.

Moreover, the transitional government has yet to establish an independent electoral commission to oversee the elections scheduled to be held 24 months after the government's installation. Although the new parliament in December approved a law providing for the setting up of such a body, it has yet to be acted on.

The government is also struggling with establishing proper control of areas previously under rebel administration, while civilians in many parts of the country still face hardships such as shortages of food, water and other basic needs. Poverty levels remain low, with most Congolese said to be living on less than US $1 daily.

In Burundi, the second half of a three-year transitional government is due to end towards the end of 2004, following which democratic elections are due to be held, more than 10 years after civil war broke out in the tiny central African state.

The country's hope for peace was greatly boosted on 5 January when the only rebel faction, which had hitherto refused to enter into peace negotiations with the government, announced that it was willing to meet President Domitien Ndayizeye for talks.

The announcement by the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) faction led by Agathon Rwasa, follows December's integration into the government of the of the main rebel movement, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), led by Pierre Nkurunziza.

In November, Nkurunziza was named minister of state for good governance, the third most powerful position in the government after Ndayizeye and Vice-President Alphonse-Marie Kadege, who must henceforth consult him on matters concerning state security and government appointments.

On 6 January, Ndayizeye signed a decree appointing 33 members of the Joint Military High Command, 20 from the army and 13 from Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD, in accordance with a Technical Forces Agreement signed in Pretoria on 2 November 2003.

The setting up of the joint command precedes the formation of the new National Defence Forces, following the signing of a power-sharing agreement between the government and Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD on 16 November in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The announcement by Rwasa's FNL that it was willing to meet Ndayizeye caught many Burundians by surprise, and represented a major shift in the faction's policy.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in January 2004 at a venue outside the country yet to be revealed, will definitely expedite the country's progress towards peace, given that the faction is now the only one being held responsible for the sporadic fighting in an around the capital, Bujumbura. The province of Bujumbura Rural, which surrounds Bujumbura, is an FNL stronghold and its fighters have staged a number of attacks on the city in the course of 2003.

Ndayizeye's cabinet reshuffle on 23 November 2003 to incorporate Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD illustrated the country's determination to move towards peace after 10 years of civil strife in which at least 300,000 Burundians have died.

Besides naming Nkurunziza the minister for good governance, Ndayizeye appointed three other CNDD-FDD members to ministerial posts. With Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD now part of the transitional government, ethnic integration and eventually democracy are now within grasp of Burundians.

For the CAR, the March 2003 coup by Francois Bozize marked a turning point in the country's quest for peace and stability.

Having ousted President Ange-Felix Patasse, Bozize established a transitional government incorporating members of the various political, religious and social affiliations, and embarked on restoring security to the country after the six months during which his rebels fought government forces. Most of the fighting was concentrated in the north of the country, whose inhabitants are still recovering from the consequent devastation wrought there.

Bozize's administration saw to it that civil servants, who had not received salaries for more than 30 months, started receiving monthly payments from April 2003. However, towards the end of the year - October, November and December - the government encountered difficulties in meeting its salary commitments, culminating in a recent announcement that it could no longer guarantee payment of salaries on fixed dates.

Despite strides made by the administration towards restoring peace, including Bozize's own declaration that he would not contest the presidency at the end of the transitional period early in 2005, in his latest report to the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern over the re-emergence of rapes, hold-ups and civil rights violations being perpetrated in the capital, Bangui, and the country's hinterland.

In the report, covering the period from July to December, Annan appealed to the international community to lend its support to efforts to restore security, urging a "gracious response" to the UN's consolidated annual appeal for both humanitarian and electoral assistance the CAR.

"If this concern is not taken into account, the Central African Republic will return to a situation of instability, with incalculable consequences for its people and the entire subregion, where peace remains fragile," Annan said in the report.

In Rwanda, the only country in the region not to have seen much turmoil in recent years, the first-ever multiparty elections were held in August and September, ending a transitional period that began in 1994, soon after the April-June genocide that claimed the lives of at least 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

Despite claims of intimidation and harassment of opposition candidates during the elections, Rwanda distinguished itself as a world leader in gender balance as far as political representation is concerned, with almost half of the elected parliamentarians being women. The elections saw the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) win a landslide victory.

Moreover, the country adopted a new constitution in May 2003, under which women are entitled to hold at least 30 percent of all posts in government and other decision-making bodies.

At the same time, with relative stability being experienced in the DRC, hundreds of former Hutu combatants who fled into what was then Zaire after the genocide have returned home, boosting the Rwanda's efforts to achieve peace and ethnic reconciliation.

A Kigali-based officer of the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, told IRIN on 5 January that a total of 1,455 refugees, including former members of the hardline Hutu Interahamwe militias and of the former Forces armees rwandaises, known as ex-Far, the two groups most held responsible for the genocide, returned home in November and December 2003.

In 1997, the government of President Paul Kagame of the RPF established a Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission for the reintegration of ex-combatants. The programme is designed to foster reconciliation and to contribute towards poverty reduction and the strengthening of peace.

As the country approaches the 10th anniversary of the genocide, scheduled to be observed in April 2004, the government has commended efforts by the AU in promoting the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution designating 7 April 2004 as International Day of Reflection on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

With at least four countries in the region poised to achieve greater stability in 2004, the only country whose efforts seem to have stagnated is the Republic of Congo (ROC), which, despite a peace agreement signed in March 2003 between the government and the main rebel movement, little progress has been recorded since.

Outbreaks of the deadly haemorrhagic fever Ebola struck parts of the ROC, resulting in the deaths of several dozen people, the conflict-ridden Pool region remained unstable, and fighting was reported near the capital, Brazzaville, with the police announcing on 20 December a three-month crackdown on troublemakers, following two nights of unrest and violence in the city's suburbs.

21 Jan - A company of 120 Republic of Congo (ROC) soldiers arrive in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), as part of the peacekeeping force sent by the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC).

23 Jan - A platoon of 31 soldiers from Equatorial Guinea arrive in Bangui where it joins the Gabonese and Congolese peacekeeping contingent of CEMAC troops.

25-26 Jan - Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) and Cooperazione Internationale (Coopi) jointly supply essential drugs to hospitals in two cities still under government control in the northeast of the country. The drugs, worth 1 million francs CFA (about US $1,540), are flown to two provincial hospitals at Ndele and Birao, respectively 645 km and 1,101 km northeast of Bangui.

The northeast has been isolated from Bangui since 25 October 2002, when Gen Francois Bozize, the former army chief of staff, and his supporters invaded the CAR in a bid to overthrow President Ange-Felix Patasse.

7 Feb - The government of Japan and Caritas, a Roman Catholic NGO, sign a 48-million franc CFA agreement to build and rehabilitate wells in Ombella Mpoko Province, southern CAR. These funds are to "help Ombella Mpoko's population contain waterborne diseases and reduce poverty by creating income-generating activities linked to the modernisation of water wells," Jean-Baptiste Mossoumou, the coordinator for Caritas's Bangui archdioceses, says.

8 Feb - The World Food Programme (WFP) says it is unable to reach almost 5,400 internally displaced persons (IDPs) targeted for emergency relief, due to insecurity in the northern part of the country. In its emergency report, it says "virtually no information" is available from the affected area. By contrast, WFP says the "relatively stable security situation" in southern CAR allows it to resume food distributions there.

15 March - Bozize enters Bangui and overthrows the government of Patasse. Bozize declares himself head of state, suspends the government and constitution and maintains that he is still open to the national political dialogue planned by his predecessor.

18 March - MSF-Belgium reports that the situation for about 30,000 CAR refugees who have fled to the south of neighbouring Chad "is becoming more precarious by the day" since the 15 March coup.

23 March - Bozize appoints Abel Goumba, 76, as prime minister of a transitional government. Goumba is one of the founding fathers of the CAR.

31 March - Goumba names his 28-member transitional government, comprising representatives of civil society and all political parties.

1 April - Goumba announces that the transition period will last between one and three years, after which elections will be held to decide on a new government. "One to three years are the extreme limits [of the transition period]. It may be halfway. I do not know," he tells Radio France Internationale.

1 April - The representative of the UN secretary-general in the CAR, Lamine Cisse, says the activities of the UN Peace-building Office (BONUCA) in the country will be revised and adapted to the new situation in the country. "The mandate remains the same, but the activities will be readjusted," Cisse, who heads BONUCA, says.

2 April - The newly formed CAR government holds its first cabinet meeting, with Goumba asking all ministers to declare their wealth before assuming office.

3 April - Bozize establishes a 63-member National Transitional Council (NTC) to serve as an advisory and transitional legislative body.

7 April - MSF-Spain's representative in the CAR, Annick Lacits, announces that the organisation has delivered drugs to two hospitals in the war-ravaged northwest, thereby enabling the resumption of emergency services. MSF-Spain supplies three to four weeks' worth of drugs to hospitals in Paoua and Bocaranga, around 500 km northwest of Bangui.

8 April - The CEMAC C-in-C, Martin Mavoungou, says the strength of his peacekeeping troops has been set at 350.

10 April - Bozize announces on state radio that the transitional period would last between 18 and 30 months. He promises to restore peace and security, and fight corruption and poverty during that time.

10 April - WFP announces the suspension of food aid deliveries from the Cameroonian port of Douala to Bangui because of insecurity at its warehouses.

11 April - The new government begins paying salary arrears to civil servants, the police and the military. The government had promised that from the beginning of April it would pay salaries monthly. The payments made are civil servants' salary arrears of April 2001, the June 2001 arrears for the police and those of August 2001 for the military.

14 April - Former Defence Minister Guillaume Lucien Ndjengbot is arrested at Bangui M'poko International Airport on his return from exile. Ndjengbot, who served under former President Andre Kolingba, is arrested as he steps off a private jet. The reason for the arrest is not given.

15 April - The representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the CAR, Emile Segbor, says some 284 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who had camped on the premises of the agency's offices after the 15 March coup, have left. UNHCR moved 30 of the refugees to Molangue refugee camp, about 140 km south of Bangui, "and the rest returned to their homes."

17 April - The African Union (AU) announces it has sent a special envoy to the CAR to review the situation "in light of the recent developments". The envoy, Sadok Fayala, left for the central Africa region on 14 April.

17 April - The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs contributes 11 mt of relief aid to the UN relief effort for thousands of war-affected people in the CAR, the UN system coordination analyst in the country, Silvia Chiarucci, says. The materials delivered include tents, blankets, rolls of plastic, jerry cans, pickaxes and shovels, and were flown in from Brindisi, Italy.

18 April - Bozize appoints governors to all the country's 16 provinces. They include one woman, who will govern Ombella M'poko Province in which Bangui is located.

22 April - Goumba announces that officials have begun a "diplomatic offensive" across the region to explain the new administration's policies. Foreign Minister Abdoul Karim Meckassoua visits Angola, Chad, ROC, DRC, Gabon, Sudan and West Africa.

23 April - Bozize grants amnesty to all those convicted of involvement in the 28 May 2001 coup attempt led by Kolingba. In August 2002, a criminal court sentenced around 800 people, 600 of whom were outside the country, for their roles in the plot to oust Patasse. Among them, Kolingba, his two sons, and around 20 others from his Yakoma ethnic group, were sentenced to death in absentia.

23-24 April - MSF-Spain immunises 7,560 children in Sibut, 185 km northeast of Bangui. The immunisation is carried out following reports that 22 cases of measles have been detected in Sibut since 1 April.

24 April - The government spokesman, Zarambeaud Assingambi, announces that the government has withdrawn the mineral exploitation licences of Colombe Mine, a mining company owned by Patasse. Assingambi says that the firm and a Togolese businessman, Rene Koffi, reported to be Patasse's brother-in-law, are no longer authorised to exploit the CAR's resources. No reason was given for the decision.

25 April - Bozize announces that he will step down as leader after the transition period of between 18 and 30 months.

28 April - Some 100 ROC soldiers leave their capital, Brazzaville, in support of the CEMAC force. They join a contingent of 150 soldiers from the ROC sent there in January.

30 April - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) monitoring-evaluation project officer, Robert Ndamobissi, announces that the agency has donated drugs and medical equipment worth $550,000 to be distributed to 890,000 people in six provinces in the east of the country.

30 April - The UN system in CAR appeals to donors for $9.1 million to help two-thirds of the country's 3.7 million people directly affected by war. The money will be used to improve health delivery, food security, human protection and the coordination of humanitarian activities for the 2.2 million beneficiaries, 400,000 of whom are children under five years old and 600,000 women of childbearing age.

1 May - The prime minister's office announces that the state has recovered $2 million owed the government by 11 timber companies. The director of the cabinet in the prime minister's office, Marcel Djimasse, says the companies were asked to pay up before they could become eligible for provisional licences to log.

2 May - Teachers end their seven-month nationwide strike for partial payment of their 32 months in salary arrears. The agreement to do so was reached on 30 April between the Teachers' Federation, (L'Interfederale des enseignants, which represents two teachers' unions), and the eduction ministry. Classes will reopen on 5 May.

2-6 May - A UN humanitarian assessment mission to the northern province of Ouham finds that water facilities were seriously damaged during the recent months of fighting.

6 May - Mavoungou says the CEMAC peacekeeping force will remain in CAR until the end of the political transitional period.

7 May - The government sets up a joint government-UN-NGO committee, known as the Comite National d'Accueil et de Reinsertion des Rapatries, for the repatriation of thousands of the nation's refugees.

13 May - In efforts to improve security Bozize appoints commanders for the country's seven military regions. The appointments follow those of governors for the 16 provinces in April.

17 May - A total of 600 IDPs, including 400 teachers and their families, return home from Bangui, in compliance with a government directive to resume teaching.

17 May - The government spokesman, Zarambeaud Assingambi, announces that women's organisations have been granted four more seats in the NTC. He also announces that the government increased the council's membership from 63 to 96, giving women's organisations six seats, from an initial two.

23 May - In a joint operation, the military, police, gendarmerie and CEMAC troops begin a sweep to restore security in Bangui.

28 May - MSF announces that signs of malnutrition have been observed among an estimated 41,000 refugees from the CAR who fled to Chad since November 2002.

28 May - The adviser to the French army chief of staff for the Middle East and Africa, Gen Pellegrini, says France will continue to support the CEMAC force up to the end of the political transition period.

30 May - An official to the EC delegation to the country, Laurent Silano, announces that the EC has launched a 1.79-million emergency programme to revamp and re-equip health facilities in nine of the country's war-affected provinces.

7 June - The CAR signs an interest-free loan agreement of 1.5 billion francs CFA with the People's Republic of China (PRC) for the implementation of socioeconomic development projects.

8 June - Eight executive board members of the former ruling party, Mouvement pour la liberation du peuple centrafricain (MPLC), are arrested as they hold a meeting in Bangui. They are accused of organising "subversive meetings" to destabilise the new administration. Those arrested include Gabriel Jean Edouard Koyambounou, the former minister of state for communication and MPLC second deputy chairman, Joseph Vermont Tchendo, the former MLPC secretary-general and Patasse's special adviser, and Andre Ringui, the former education minister.

12 June - The AU commissioner for refugees, Bruno Zidouemba, presents a $50,000 cheque to Justice Minister Faustin Mbodou to support the government's repatriation of CAR refugees.

12 June - A team comprising a physician and a logistics officer from the Coopi, arrives in Bossangoa, 305 km northwest of Bangui, to start distributing EC-funded drugs to local health facilities.

13 June - Bozize and DRC President Joseph Kabila agree to revive bilateral defence accords and to relaunch a CAR-DRC commission on security along the Congo and Oubangui rivers.

17 June - An oil company belonging to Patasse is suspended from transacting business in the country.

19 June - The government submits to a visiting UN delegation its outline of a three-year emergency reconstruction programme worth 80 billion francs CFA it wants funded. Of this, 13 billion francs is earmarked for social and humanitarian operations.

23 June - The government and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sign agreements worth $730,000 to revive farming in the country devastated by the rebellion.

25 June - Coopi is distributing drugs to two hospitals respectively in Bozoum and Paoua, 384 km and 506 km northwest of Bangui, in an effort to last some three months. The NGO also sends drugs to Ngaoundaye, 600 km northwest of Bangui, on the CAR-Cameroon-Chad border.

26 June - State-owed Radio Centrafrique and Television Centrafricaine reports that Bozize has directed Justice Minister Faustin Mbodou to recover some 4.8 billion francs CFA, which had been donated by Japan to the government and embezzled during Patasse's rule.

27 June - The government allows former Prime Minister Martin Ziguele to fly to France where he has been granted political asylum. He served as prime minister and finance minister between April 2001 and 15 March 2003.

2 July - Communications Minister Parfait Mbaye announces that Japan has given the CAR 165 million francs CFA for the rehabilitation of the state-owned Radio Centrafrique and Television Centrafricaine.

3 July - An inter-ministerial commission set up in May to investigate the size of the civil service found 866 ghost workers on the payroll, the prime minister's office reports. The government says it could save up to 265 million francs CFA every month by not paying ghost workers.

7 July - The CAR and Libya decide to resume diplomatic ties after four months of uncertainty. Bozize and the Libyan leader, Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, make the commitment when they meet in the Chadian capital, N'djamena.

13 July - CEMAC troops begin patrolling the towns of Bossangoa, Markounda, Paoua, Ngaoundaye and Bozoum, and Bocaranga - all northwest of Bangui.

16 July - The PRC ambassador, Wang Sifa, announces that his government has granted of 100 million francs CFA to support the government's reconstruction efforts. It is the second grant by China to the Bozize administration.

22 July - The WFP representative, David Bulman, says the agency has resumed transporting food into the CAR from neighbouring Cameroon, where it had been held up for four months due to insecurity in the CAR.

29 July - MSF-Spain begins a massive anti-measles vaccination drive in the northern town of Nana Bakassa and 30 surrounding villages with a combined total population of 12,000. Of these, 5,500 are children aged between six months and 15 years and who are due for vaccination during the three-day campaign.

31 July - The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) delegate in CAR, Francois Jacot, announces it has received 1.2 billion francs CFA from its Geneva headquarters to start a potable water programme for eight locations in the country.

30 July - French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin announces in Bangui that France will train and equip three CAR army battalions and gendarmerie units to help restore security in the country. The first battalion is to be ready and equipped before the end of the year.

1 Aug - The CEMAC force declares the north of the country safe, and all major transport routes open.

11 Aug - the US Department of State announces that CAR, DRC, ROC and Tanzania are among 58 participants eligible for trade in rough diamonds with the US in accordance with the Clean Diamond Trade Act.

14 Aug - Bozize orders security forces, administrative authorities and the public to help recover $363 million worth of equipment belonging to the Japanese road construction company, Kajima, which was looted after his 15 March coup.

17-20 Aug - A delegation from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States pledges to help the CAR to normalise relations with the EC.

25 Aug - The FAO appeals for $2.6 million to distribute farming, livestock and fishing inputs to vulnerable populations before the start of the next planting season in April 2004.

27 Aug - The UNHCR begins the repatriation of about 1,700 CAR refugees from the northern ROC town of Betou, where they have been since June 2001.

29 Aug - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) receives $64,000 worth of stationery for distribution to school children and teachers in zones affected by the October 2002 to March 2003 civil war. The material will be distributed to the northern provinces of Ouham Pende, Ouham and Nana Grebizi.

13 Sept - The first CAR soldiers - 16 non-commissioned officers - trained by French military instructors since the March coup complete their two-month course.

15 Sept - National reconciliation talks begin in Bangui aimed at healing the nation deeply divided by years of armed conflict, coups and ethnic rivalries. A total of 350 delegates representing different political, social, religious and professional affiliations are in attendance.

5 Oct - Kolingba returns home after two years of exile in Uganda, following an amnesty granted by Bozize. He had fled to Uganda after his failed coup on 28 May 2001 against Patasse.

6 Oct - Health authorities resume the immunisation of children in the northwestern towns of Bozoum, Paoua, Bocaranga and Ngaoundaye, which have been cut off for a year by war and insecurity. The vaccinations are against tuberculosis, diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles and yellow fever.

10 Oct - After 40 years of political enmity, Goumba, 77, and former President David Dacko, 73, embrace in an historic act of reconciliation in Bangui, during the national political reconciliation talks.

16 Oct - The national reconciliation talks in the CAR end with the completion of the final report and the setting up of a team to oversee implementation of the recommendations made. A 21-member follow-up team, including 15 people elected by the 350 delegates to the talks, and representatives of the government, the NTC and the talks' coordination team, is set up.

21 Oct - The government and the French Development Agency, the Agence Francaise de Developpement, sign agreements worth $10.3 million for water drainage and road repair projects in Bangui, and to revamp the country's river transport company.

21 Oct - WFP begins a food distribution to 2,530 former refugees who returned home in June from northern DRC after two years. The returnees are to receive food rations for 90 days.

23 Oct - MSF-Spain begins a three-day measles immunisation campaign, targeting 11,000 children in Bozoum, following reports of an outbreak earlier this year.

24 Oct - A nationwide curfew that had been in force since 15 March power is lifted.

27 Oct - Regional leaders officially close the national reconciliation talks. The presidents of the ROC and Gabon attended the event. Benin, Chad, Mali and Sudan as well as the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States and the African Union sent envoys.

3 Nov - Government launches nationwide anti-polio immunisation campaign aimed at reaching at least 650,000 children aged under five years.

12 Nov - The nation's high commissioner for human rights, Thierry Maleyombo, announces the government's disbandment of a military intelligence unit in the presidential security services, Service d'Enquete, de Recherche et de Documentation. The unit is accused of engaging in torture, rape and extortion.

20 Nov - Dacko, 73, dies in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, where he was receiving treatment for asthma.

30 Nov - A government committee set up to oversee implementation of recommendations made at the end of a national reconciliation forum in mid-October announces the revision of the country's transition calendar. The committee's chairwoman, Catherine Samba-Panza, says the country's constitutional referendum will now be held in September 2004 instead of mid-2004. General elections, earlier set for the third and last quarter of 2004, will now be held between November 2004 and April 2005.

2-3 Dec - Bozize and his Sudanese counterpart, President Umar al-Bashir, resolve to revive a joint border security commission to curb poaching and cross-border attacks between the two countries. The agreement is reached during Bozize's two-day visit to Sudan that ended on 3 Dec.

8 Dec - A nationwide population census begins in the CAR, with financial and logistic support from the EC, the UN Population Fund and the UN Development Programme.

9 Dec - The FAO begins distributing canoes to fishing cooperatives in Bangui and surrounding areas, to help the fishing community to recover from the consequences of the May 2001 coup attempt.

12 Dec - Newly appointed Prime Minister Celestin Le Roi Gaoumbale forms a new transitional government. Bozize appoints Goumba vice-president.

15 Dec - Bozize allows the UNHCR to repatriate refugees from the DRC using the Oubangui river which, besides serving as the border between the two countries, has been closed to human traffic since September.

16 Dec - The first 301 of thousands of refugees from the DRC in the CAR go home under a repatriation programme facilitated by the UNHCR.

20 Dec - The NTC approves a bill authorising Bozize to ratify two treaties aimed at preventing and managing conflict in central Africa. A date for the ratification has not been announced.

22 Dec - WFP begins distributing of three-months' rations to 1,919 former CAR refugees who recently returned from the ROC and Cameroon.

23 Dec - Bozize signs an order dismissing a number of soldiers from the army because of indiscipline. The soldiers named have been removed from army lists and sent home.

26 Dec - The NTC adopts an updated mining code to replace the one written during the colonial era and which proved obsolete with regard to smuggling and anti-corruption efforts. The new code was influenced by the August 2003 national conference on mining and by the September-October national reconciliation forum, both of which called for the revival of the mining sector.

30 Dec - The French government will support security efforts to ensure the success of the electoral process scheduled to close the transition period in the CAR in early 2005, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie says in Bangui.

Three major pan-African institutions will come into force in early 2004, the African Union announced on Tuesday. They include a much-heralded Peace and Security Council, modelled on the UN Security Council, as well as a Pan-African Parliament and an African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, both of which will be in force by the end of January, AU officials told IRIN.

These three institutions are the cornerstones of the African Union and vital for the continent, AU spokesman Desmond Orjiako told IRIN. The Pan African Parliament will give everyone a voice to be heard on the continent. The Peace and Security Council empowers us to prevent, manage and resolve conflict and the African court will help us arbitrate.

"The Peace and Security Council is what we need to have peace, to be able to address the many conflicts ravaging the continent, he added.

The Council is seen as a crucial weapon in Africa s peacekeeping arsenal and has been welcomed by the international community. It empowers us in many ways, said Orjiako. It will provide us with a more active, comprehensive and robust framework for ensuring peace.

It will have new powers that allow the AU to intervene in conflicts and could soon be matched with an African peacekeeping force, the official added.

The Union would be able to intervene in a member state s affairs if it committed war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity. The Peace and Security Council could also take action if a country allowed its territory to be used as a base for subversion against another African nation.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was replaced by the AU in July 2002, was often criticised for failing to condemn or take action against rogue states. By setting up the council, which can call for a peace force to be sent in, the AU can apply additional pressure on factions or leaders bent on war, officials said.

Although the international community has provided funding for the Peace and Security Council question marks still remain over who will foot the bill. Financial hurdles have already been blamed for a six-month delay in sending African peacekeepers to Burundi to help restore order after a decade-long civil war.

MOST ETHNO-NET AFRICA DATABASE

AFRICA / AFRIQUE