The UN sends troops to famine-stricken and war-torn Somalia

The new federalist regime in Ethiopia cedes independence to Eritrea

President Habyarimana alienates Rwanda's Hutu Power extremists by coming to terms with the Rwandan Patriotic Front

Melchior Ndadaye, the first Hutu president of Burundi, is killed by Tutsis within months of his election

Civil war in Burundi, between Hutus and Tutsis, follows the murder of the first Hutu president

The Hutu government in Rwanda preaches genocide against Tutsis

US and European troops are withdrawn from the UN force in turbulent Somalia

The Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, dies when his plane is shot down

Cyprian Ntayamira, the second Hutu president of Burundi, dies in the crash of the president of Rwanda's plane

The assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana sparks the outbreak of genocide

As many as 800,000 people die, most of them slashed to death with machetes, in three months of genocide in Rwanda

Mogadishu, the capital, is divided between two factions in Somalia's civil war

After the genocide in Rwanda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front captures Kigali and replaces the Hutu government

More than a million Hutus, escaping from the backlash after the genocide in Rwanda, are in refugee camps in Zaire

Asian and African UN troops withdraw from Somalia, though the country is still in a state of violent civil war

Ethiopians have their first experience of democracy in a free presidential election, won by Meles Zenawi

Expelled from Sudan, Osama bin Laden moves to Afghanistan where he builds training camps for al-Qaeda

Bitter and devastating warfare breaks out again between Eritrea and Ethiopia as the result of a border dispute

224 deaths in simultaneous attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are linked to al-Qaeda

US cruise missiles attack al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical factory in Khartoum

Steps are taken to end Sudan's fifteen-year civil war, with an undated government promise of a referendum in the south

Approximately 130,000 Hutus are held in gaol awaiting trial for their part in Rwanda's genocide

Civil war breaks out in the Darfur region of the Sudan, resulting in large numbers of civilian deaths and accusations of government-sponsored genocide