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| 1961 |
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| UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash en route to negotiate a cease-fire with Tshombe. | 1 |
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| 1963, Jan. 14 |
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| Tshombe ended the Katanga secession following a UN military onslaught. | 2 |
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| 1965, Nov. 25 |
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| A military coup put army commander Gen. Joseph Désiré Mobutu in power in Congo; he quickly banned opposition politics and consolidated power. | 3 |
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| 1965–75 |
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| Mobutu succeeded in reuniting the Congo but presided over a corrupt, authoritarian regime. | 4 |
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| 1967 |
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| Mobutu institutionalized his power in a one-party state, under the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR) and through sweeping presidential powers. | 5 |
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| 1977–78 |
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| Serious rebellions were suppressed in Shaba Province with the aid of France and Belgium. Moves toward democracy were halted, and a new constitution made Mobutu chair of the ruling MPR Party. | 6 |
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| 1986 |
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| Zaire denied Zambian allegations that Zaire was funneling arms from the U.S. to South African–backed UNITA in Angola. | 7 |
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| 1987, April |
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| Zaire, Angola, and Zambia agreed to restore the Benguela railway, which had not functioned since the mid-1970s due to UNITA action. | 8 |
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| 1988 |
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| The U.S. threatened to discontinue aid—$46 million annually—because of human rights abuses in Zaire, including the recent disruption of opposition meetings and the arrest of leaders. | 9 |
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| 1991, Oct |
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| A crisis in Zaire included widespread violence by soldiers and civilians. Pres. Mobutu Sese Seko (formerly Joseph Désiré Mobutu) fired recently named premier Étienne Tshisekedi. | 10 |
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| 1995, May 26 |
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| In a report issued by the World Health Organization the death toll from a recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire was 153. On Aug. 28 WHO declared the end to this outbreak. | 11 |
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| 1996, Aug. 9 |
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| Zaire followed several other African countries in imposing trade sanctions on neighboring Burundi because of the military takeover by the Tutsis. | 12 |
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| Oct. 30 |
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| The Zairean army began fighting Tutsi rebels and dissidents of diverse origins who had formed the Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo-Zaire (AFDL). Many Rwandan Hutu refugees remained stranded in eastern Zaire. | 13 |
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