First, there were those Congolese ( among them Joseph Kasavubu ) who favored splitting the country into small independent states, Balkanizing it.

More than 20, 000 people were forced to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2009, an action the DR Congo said was in retaliation for regular expulsion of Congolese diamond miners who were in Angola illegally.

Most of the crimes were committed by Congolese MLC soldiers, but Bozizé's rebels, including elements from Chad, were also responsible.

European mercenaries, US, and Belgian troops were called in by the Congolese government to defeat the rebellion.

The first organized Congolese troops, known as the ( FP ), were created in 1888 when King Leopold II of Belgium, who held the Congo Free State as his private property, ordered his Secretary of the Interior to create military and police forces for the state.

The Belgian Government made no effort to train Congolese commissioned officers until the very end of the Colonial period and there were only about 20 African cadets in training on the eve of Independence.

On 8 – 9 July 1960, the soldiers were invited to appoint black officers, and ' command of the army passed securely into the hands of former sergeants ,' as the soldiers in general chose the most-educated and highest-ranked Congolese army soldiers as their new officers.

Most of the Belgian officers were retained as advisors to the new Congolese hierarchy, and calm returned to the two main garrisons at Leopoldville and Thysville.

Thousands of Congolese were executed, including government officials, political leaders of opposition parties, provincial and local police, school teachers, and others believed to have been Westernized.

Among his company were J. Richard Greenwell, M. Justin Wilkinson, and Congolese zoologist Marcellin Agnagna.

Fulbert Youlou and his main supporters were arrested by the military and ceased to play any further role in Congolese political life.

Educational, economic, and foreign aid links between Congo and its Eastern bloc allies were extensive, with the Congolese military and security forces receiving significant Soviet, East German, and Cuban assistance.

The late 1980s were marked by a progressive warming of Congolese relations with Western countries, including the United States.

For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood.

The catalogue of a travelling exhibition of contemporary Congolese artists who were inspired by the legacy of Lumumba.

These were disbanded by an RPF-sponsored invasion in 1996 that replaced the Congolese president and resulted in the First Congo War.

Ugandan and Rwandan forces within Congo began to battle each other for territory, and Congolese Mai Mai militias, most active in the South and North Kivu provinces ( in which most refugees were located ) took advantage of the conflict to settle local scores and widen the conflict, battling each other, Ugandan and Rwandan forces, and even Congolese forces.

UPDF special forces and artillery, supported by aircraft, were joined by the Congolese FARDC and elements of the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

By this time, Mobutu had met many of the young Congolese intellectuals who were challenging colonial rule.

In 1968 they were due to play Congolese club, Étoile du Congo in the Preliminary round but withdrew from the competition before the matches were played handing Étoile du Congo a walkover, and in 1975 they lost 3-0 on aggregate to Djoliba Athletic Club of Mali in the First round.

Vague in wording, it called for withdrawal of Belgian troops and authorized the Secretary-General `` to take the necessary steps to provide the ( Congolese ) Government with such military assistance as may be necessary, until, through the efforts of the Congolese Government with the technical assistance of the United Nations, the national security forces may be able, in the opinion of the Government, to meet fully their tasks.

The report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of white officials who had been responsible for cold-blooded killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903, including one Belgian national for causing the shooting of at least 122 Congolese natives.

However, interim President Kabila urged Congolese to vote ' Yes ', saying the constitution is the country's best hope for peace in the future.

An impressive 25 million Congolese turned out for the two-day balloting.

Under the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement, signed on 17 December 2002, in Pretoria, there was to be one President and four Vice-Presidents, one from the government, one from the Rally for Congolese Democracy, one from the MLC, and one from civil society.

This called upon Belgium to remove its troops and for the UN to provide ' military assistance ' to the Congolese forces to allow them ' to meet fully their tasks '.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 161 of 21 February 1961, called for the withdrawal of Belgian officers from command positions in the ANC, and the training of new Congolese officers with UN help.

In early 1964, a new crisis broke out as Congolese rebels calling themselves " Simba " ( Swahili for " Lion ") rebelled against the government.

The Congolese oil sector is dominated by the French parastatal oil company Elf Aquitaine, which accounts for 70 % of the country's annual oil production.

* December 7 – The United Nations Security Council is called into session by the Soviet Union in order to consider Soviet demands for the Security Council to seek the immediate release of the former Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba.

Between 1998 and 2003, the Ugandan army was involved in the Second Congo War in the renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo and the government continues to support rebel groups such as the Movement for the Liberation of Congo and some factions of the Rally for Congolese Democracy.

His regime was responsible for the death of an estimated 5 to 15 million Congolese.

The inscription accompanying the Congolese group mentions The gratitude of the Congolese to Leopold II for having liberated them from slavery under the Arabs.

The United States was particularly concerned about the economic treaty it had reached with the Belgian government in London that enabled them to obtain Congolese uranium for America's secret atom bomb program.

Congo, as per the Congolese Code of Civil, Commercial, Administrative and Financial Procedure, in matters of private law, decisions or orders emanating from conciliation proceedings may be enforced through imprisonment for debt.

Thirteen Italian airmen who went to the Congo to serve the cause of peace under the United Nations banner have instead met violent death at the hands of Congolese troops supposedly their friends.

On 5 July 1960 a military mutiny by Congolese soldiers against their European officers broke out in the capital and rampant looting began.

After decades of turbulent politics bolstered by Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Congolese gradually moderated their economic and political views to the point that, in 1992, Congo completed a transition to multi-party democracy.

Lumumba appointed Mobutu as Chief of Staff of the Armée Nationale Congolaise, the Congolese Army, and in that capacity, Mobutu toured the country convincing soldiers to return to their barracks.

To extract the rubber, instead of tapping the vines, the Congolese workers would slash them and lather their bodies with the rubber latex.

Congolese labourers who failed to meet rubber collection quotas were often punished by having their Mutilation | hands cut off.

Belgium and the United Kingdom had a vested interest in maintaining their control over much of the country's copper industry during the Congolese transition from colonialism to independence.

Congolese musicians were the most popular performers in Kenya during the 1970s and ' 80s, only losing their mainstream acceptance in the early 1990s.

The term rumba or rock-rumba is also used generically to refer to Congolese music, though both words have their own difficulties and neither is very precise nor accurately descriptive.

Congolese musicians appropriated rumba and adapted its characteristics for their own instruments and tastes.

Many of the most popular musicians of the classic era had lost their edge or died, and President Mobutu's regime continued to repress indigenous music, reinforcing Paris ' status as a center for Congolese music.

This sparked a diplomatic row between the governments of the DRC and Uganda, with both militaries making a show of force along their border, while the Congolese ambassador to the United Nations sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General demanding that an economic embargo be placed on Uganda in retaliation.

It was not until the following day that a senior Congolese official who spoke Chibemba saved them and apologised for their mistreatment.

They were arrested by the Congolese ( Katangese ) gendarme and their maps were confiscated.

Created from their vision, Congolese women run, operate and direct City of Joy themselves.

Raw featured a mix of American and European contributors ( including some of Spiegelman's students at the School of Visual Arts ), as well as various contributors from other parts of the world, including the Argentine duo of José Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo, the Congolese painter Chéri Samba, and several Japanese cartoonists known for their work in Garo.

Most were formed to resist the invasion of Rwandan forces and Rwanda-affiliated Congolese rebel groups, but some may have formed to exploit the war for their own advantage by looting, cattle rustling or banditry.

A group of Catholic évolués responded positively to the plan with a manifesto in a Congolese journal called Conscience Africaine, with their only point of disagreement being the amount of native Congolese participation.

This called upon Belgium to remove its troops and for the UN to provide ' military assistance ' to the Congolese forces to allow them ' to meet fully their tasks '.