Congo

1994
Tens of thousands of refugees from the Rwandan genocide by Hutus of the target Tutsis crossed into the Congo on April 30, as 250,000 Rwandans crossed the borders into neighboring countries.

The Tutsi RPF forces in Rwanda capture Kigali, Rwanda on July 4, forcing the Hutu government to flee into eastern Congo, destabilizing the already weak country. As the neighboring Rwandan Genocide came to a close on July 15, the corrupt President Mobutu Sese Seko allowed Hutu extremists from the government and other refugees of the ethnic group to operate with impunity.

2014
Colonel Mamadou Ndala, who led the fight against M23 rebels in the Congo, was killed in an ambush on January 2, triggering an outpouring of praise from government officials for a commander who was never far from the frontlines. Government forces in the east launched a UN-backed offensive to drive out a rebel group on January 20, with army troops sweeping through villages that the rebel members of the Allied Democratic Forces once used for business and trade.

More than 70 men an women were executed on February 13 in the restive eastern Congo by armed groups spreading terror among the population. The UN announced plans to send more peacekeepers to the southern province of Katanga on February 14, where civilians were caught up in fighting between Congolese soldiers and rebels.

A UN-backed offensive by Congolese troops destroyed the bases of a Ugandan Islamic group in the country's east on March 3 in a fight that has lasted with M23 for several months. Government forces attacked Rwadan Hutu rebels based in the eastern borderlands on March 12, as they were accused of killing and raping civilians back in 1994.