January 12: Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo approves a new constitution in the December 2005 referendum. The new charter, which passed with 84 percent of the vote, allows for new elections later this year and gives greater autonomy to mineral-rich regions. It also lowers the minimum age for presidential candidates from 35 to 30, enabling the current president, 33-year-old Joseph Kabila, to run. Kabila has been president since his father’s death in 2001. The referendum is the first countrywide vote since 1970.
January 16: Nigeria
An attack on the Benisede pumping station in Nigeria prompts oil company Shell to evacuate 330 workers from four sites in the Niger Delta. Recent string of violence by ethnic Ijaw militants has reduced Shell’s oil output by 220,000 barrels a day. The militants demand more local control over the region’s oil profits and the attacks have put pressure on rising oil prices.
January 18: Côte Ivoire
Three hundred United Nations peacekeepers flee Guiglo, a town in western Ivory Coast, after clashes with supporters of Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. The president’s followers are angry over international mediators’ calls for the dissolution of the pro-Gbagbo parliament. The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) has withdrawn from the transitional government and UN-backed peace talks, and demands that peacekeeping troops leave the country. Ivory Coast remains divided since an unsuccessful coup attempt in 2002.
January 23: Cape Verde
The African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) wins the country’s parliamentary elections with 52 percent of the vote. The new parliament will serve for a term of five years. Separate presidential elections will be held in February.
February 2: Liberia
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf fires the entire staff of the finance ministry in an effort to curb corruption. The sacked workers must reapply for their jobs, and those who succeed will receive extra training. Johnson-Sirleaf’s January election followed a peace deal ending fourteen years of civil war in Liberia.
February 8: Nigeria
The deadly strain of the bird flu virus is found in poultry in the Nigerian state of Kaduna. Authorities are disinfecting the premises, imposing quarantine and restricting animal movements in order to suppress the outbreak. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) says it is the first time the disease has been detected in Africa. Some fear that the disease will easily spread through the continent because of the lack of safeguards.
February 19: Democratic Republic of Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo officially adopts its new constitution approved in a December 2005 referendum. The document gives the country a new flag, limits the president to two five-year terms, and creates a new legal framework that includes an elected parliament and an independent judiciary. Although formally in force, most of the changes will not be implemented until after elections in June.
February 21: Somalia
At least fifteen people are dead as clashes continue in the Somali capital Mogadishu, in the heaviest fighting the city has seen for several years. The current conflict is between the Islamic courts’ militia and a new group called the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism. Clashes between armed factions have been common in Somalia since 1991, when former military leader Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and rival warlords divided the country between themselves.
February 23: Uganda
Ugandans vote in the country’s first multiparty parliamentary and presidential elections in twenty-six years. Of the five presidential candidates, incumbent Yoweri Museveni and Kizza Besigye are the front-runners. Fears of violence have led to deployment of 12,000 army reserves to polling stations.
February 24: Central African Republic/Chad
An armed rebellion against the Central African Republic government led by General François Bozize causes thousands of people to flee to Chad and other neighboring countries. These countries, which have already accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees from conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, are afraid that the new conflict will exacerbate the refugee problem.
February 26: Somalia
Somalia’s parliament meets in the central town of Baidoa for the first time since its formation in Kenya over a year ago. The location is a compromise between the factions, who disagree over whether Mogadishu is safe enough to host the government. The meeting is the latest attempt to restore order after fifteen years of factional fighting.
March 16: Liberia
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf addresses the full U.S. Congress, one of only a few women to ever do so. She lists rebuilding and reconciliation after a fourteen-year civil war as her main priorities, and thanks the United States for its support. Congress promises an additional $50 million in aid for Liberia.
March 29: Liberia
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is transferred to the United Nations–backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. He faces seventeen charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the country’s brutal civil war. The transfer follows Taylor’s unsuccessful attempt to escape from custody in Nigeria, where he had been exiled for three years.
April 17: Somalia
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi granted the United States Navy permission to patrol Somali waters and help Somalia develop its coast guard service. Waters off the Somali coast are the world’s most dangerous, where hijackings and piracy have been on the rise. Somalia has been without a government since 1991, and Prime Minister Ghedi’s transitional administration controls only a part of the country.
April 21: Nigeria
Nigeria pays off its Paris Club debt, making it the first African country to clear its account with this Western creditor. The effort frees funds for investments in infrastructure, health care, and education. The country also hopes it will attract more foreign investment. However, Nigeria still owes $5 billion to other lenders, including the World Bank and private creditors. The debt repayment is a key part of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s economic reforms.
April 24: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe offers to lease land to white farmers who had their farms seized under President Robert Mugabe’s disastrous land reform policy. The program devastated the country’s agriculture, turning Zimbabwe from the breadbasket of southern Africa to a food importer.
April 26: Nigeria
China’s President Hu Jintao pays an official visit to Africa, during which he signs a deal for oil drilling in Nigeria. In exchange, China will invest $4 billion in oil refining and build a railroad system and power stations in Nigeria. For China, Africa is an important region that can secure its energy needs. It also has a vast market for Chinese products.
April 28: Angola
Aid agency Doctors Without Borders says that due to the epidemic of cholera in Angola, 20,000 people are infected and 900 people died in the last ten weeks. The agency also says that measures to contain the spread of disease are insufficient. Cholera is spread through contaminated water or food. Many homes in Angola lack running water and sewerage.
May 2: Cameroon
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank cancel $4.9 billion of Cameroon’s national debt, more than a quarter of its total, as part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The decision makes Cameroon the nineteenth country to benefit from the program. The IMF warns that further progress is needed for the country to strengthen its economy, specifically in the areas of government transparency, corruption, and accountability.
May 5: Morocco
Morocco appoints fifty women preachers, called Mourchidats, to promote the country’s tolerant version of Islam and to modernize its human rights. The Mourchidats can give basic religious instruction in mosques, but are still banned from leading Friday prayers. Moroccan women have been gaining more influence in the society, taking high positions in the government, judiciary, and social organizations.
May 12: Uganda
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is sworn in for a third term after a successful bid for reelection in February. Although the country’s Supreme Court upheld the results of the election, opposition leader Kizza Besigye maintains that the poll was rigged. There has also been international criticism over the constitutional change that allowed Museveni to run for a third term. Museveni has been Uganda’s leader since 1986, when his National Resistance Army came to power.
May 15: Libya
The United States agrees to renew full diplomatic ties with Libya after removing it from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The move recognizes Libya’s efforts to renounce terrorism and adhere to international norms.
May 17: Angola
A recent report on the cholera outbreak in Angola says that more than 1,200 people have died and about 35,000 more have fallen ill in the last three months. The outbreak began in February in the slums of the capital city Luanda, where more than half of the cases have appeared. Despite Angola’s strong economic growth of 20 percent, largely due to increased oil revenues, the country’s poor still have limited access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
June 12: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe and China sign a $1.3 billion agreement to hopefully solve Zimbabwe’s severe energy shortage. According to the deal, China will build new coal mines and thermal power stations in the Zambezi valley. The deal is one result of strengthened relations between the two countries.
June 13: Nigeria/Cameroon
According to an agreement brokered by the United Nations, Nigeria agrees to hand over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon. Nigerian troops stationed in Bakassi and thousands of Nigerian citizens who live there will leave the area within 60 days. The territorial dispute led to a military conflict between the two countries in the 1990s.
July 11: Somalia
Somali Islamists defeat the forces of the last remaining warlord in Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu. Approximately 500 fighters under leader Abdi Qeybdid hand over weapons and supplies to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The UIC now controls 99 percent of Mogadishu, in addition to several towns taken last month. The United States and Somali transitional government accuse the UIC of having ties to al-Qaeda.
August 1: Angola
The Angolan government signs a peace agreement with the leaders of the northern Cabinda enclave who fought for independence for 30 years. The deal includes a special status for the enclave and demilitarization and amnesty for the rebels. Oil production off the coast of Cabinda contributes to half of Angola’s revenues.
August 26: Uganda
The Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) sign a truce to end two-decade long conflict. According to the deal, the rebels will peacefully leave northern Uganda and their bases in southern Sudan and the Ugandan government pledged not to attack them. September 12 has been set for a final peace agreement. The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to prosecute LRA’s top leaders for murder, rape, and using children as child soldiers. However, in exchange for a peace deal, the Ugandan government has offered amnesty for the rebels.
September 19: Zimbabwe
Economic disasters continue to hit Zimbabwe as inflation climbs to 1,200 percent, the highest rate in the world. Rising prices in the area lead to arrests of three top food-makers who are accused of over-charging for their products. The food-makers claim the government-controlled prices of bread and other foods are not enough to cover costs of production. Inflation and other economic issues cause unrest and concern in the country.
September 20: Rwanda
Former Education Minister Andrew Rwamakuba is acquitted on charges of distributing machetes and participating in Rwanda’s 100-day massacre in 1994. Judges order his immediate release based on insufficient evidence that he ordered the massacres of Tutsis in the Gikomero township. During the massacre, approximately 800,000 people were killed.
September 23: Gambia
President Yahya Jammeh is elected for a third term with 67.3% of the vote in Gambia’s most recent elections. Since Jammeh came to power in a coup 12 years ago, the country has remained relatively stable. Despite the stability and a program of development, Jemmah does face increasing criticism for arresting opposition activists.
October 11: Senegal
Spain and Senegal agree to support legal migration to Spain in an attempt to curtail an influx of illegal immigrants. The plan allows Spain to recruit workers from Senegal and also includes 15 million euros for Senegal in development aid, to be disbursed over five years. Over half of the 26,000 illegal immigrants landing in the Spanish Canary Islands this year come from Senegal.
October 16: Sudan
Sudan’s government signs a peace deal with the Eastern Front rebel group from the east of the country, ending the low-intensity 10-year conflict with the faction. Eritrea hosted and mediated the talks, which unlike peace agreements in the south and west did not include the international community. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir hails the agreement as an example of Africans solving their own problems without international assistance.
October 17: Burundi
A group of 13,000 Burundian refugees are resettling in the United States after living in Tanzania for over thirty years. The relocation is an attempt to reduce the number of displaced people in United Nations refugee camps in western Tanzania, which currently hold about 200,000 Burundians. Burundi is emerging from a civil war that has claimed 300,000 lives.
October 17: South Africa
South Africa secures a two-year non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the first time. The country will serve alongside Indonesia, Italy, and Belgium. Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa plans to pursue UN reform, particularly expansion of the Security Council.
November 9: Democratic Republic of Congo
The International Criminal Court opens its first hearing with a case against a militia leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Judges in the court will decide if Thomas Lubanga should stand trial for recruiting child soldiers for his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) militia in Ituri, a northeastern district of the country. The four-year conflict in the country resulted in approximately four million deaths.
November 17: Sudan
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir states that the country welcomes United Nations assistance for the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Darfur, but rejects plans for the UN to take command. Al-Bashir’s statement follows UN chief Kofi Annan’s previous announcement that negotiations for a hybrid UN-AU force had been successful. In the past three years, more than 200,000 people have died in the region’s conflict.
November 22: Africa
A World Health Organization report shows that more than one million babies in Africa die within one month of life, often from easily prevented infections. The report focuses on global health inequalities, which are particularly noticeable in levels of infant mortality.
November 27: Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Supreme Court confirms Joseph Kabila’s win in October’s presidential election, rejecting losing candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba’s legal challenge. Clashes have erupted between those loyal to the two candidates over past weeks. The polls are the result of a 2002 peace deal ending the five-year conflict that killed about four million people. The world’s largest peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops remains in the country to prevent further unrest.
November 30: Central African Republic
French fighter planes attack rebels in northern Central African Republic (CAR), where rebels have recently seized several towns. France previously promised logistical and intelligence support to CAR in its fight against the rebels. The United Nations says the conflict is linked to fighting in neighboring Chad and Sudan. The unrest has led to 46,000 people fleeing into Chad and another 90,000 internally displaced within CAR.
November 30: South Africa
South Africa Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka signs the Civil Union Act, making it the first African country to allow same-sex marriages. One week earlier the country’s Constitutional Court ruled to allow gay people the right to inherit property of partners who die without a will. The South African constitution is the first in the world to specifically outlaw discrimination based on sexual preference.
December 21: Somalia/Ethiopia
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls much of southern Somalia, announces that they are in a state of war with Ethiopia. The fight stems from a history of strained relations between both countries, and has already resulted in many casualties. A European Union envoy announces that the parties agree to resume settlement talks.