[31][32] One century later, Lingala, which De Boeck had constructed from elements of Bangala and other Bantu languages including Bobangi, Mabale and Iboko, has 25 million speakers worldwide, and has become a lingua franca in both the D.R.

[30] In Canada, church groups in Victoria and Ottawa contributed to the European condemnation of the atrocities committed by King Leopold II against Congolese slave labourers, in the form of a letter written to Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, calling upon Britain to "secure to the people of the Congo Free State due protection and justice", and this public pressure ultimately led in 1908 to Leopold's relinquishment, and creation of the Belgian Congo colony.

[33] In 1939,[34] the United States purchased 1,200 tons of uranium ore[35] from the Union Minière du Haut Katanga's Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo,[36] that was warehoused on Staten Island, New York City.

[48] The Canadian participation stemmed more from overwhelming public opinion, and not decisive action on the part of the Diefenbaker government, according to historians Norman Hillmer and Jack Granatstein.

[47] Historians have described these incidents as cases of mistaken identity under chaotic circumstances, in which Canadian personnel were confused by Congolese soldiers with Belgian paratroopers, or mercenaries working for the Katanga secession.

[59] Assisted under Canadian Forces Operation LEGATION,[60] Raymond Chrétien consulted with Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko and with the leaders in Rwanda, Burundi, and neighbouring countries.

[65] Estimates of the number of Rwandan refugees in the eastern DRC varied widely, from France counting "700,000" to Germany's "500,000", Canada's "300,000 to 500,000",[66] and the United States NGO, Human Rights Watch, assuming only a few tens of thousands.

[67] In mid-December 1996, both Raymond Chrétien and Maurice Baril recommended the withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers, based on evidence of a mass repatriation of the Hutu refugees, and then-assistant deputy foreign minister Paul Heinbecker announced the Government of Canada's decision to end the mission on December 31.

[68] Despite these actions, according to the Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman, a half million Rwandans had in fact migrated further east into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) rather than repatriating.

[71][72] The journalist and former Médecins sans Frontières (Canadian Branch) communications director during the 1996 Congo/Zaire crisis, Carole Jerome, stated in 2001 that: Washington had absolutely no desire to go in and stop the carnage wrought by Kabila.

[81] During 1997–1998, former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark was employed by the Vancouver, Canada-based First Quantum Minerals as a political adviser to the newly established Congolese president, Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

[67][97] The Bechtel plan was presented to the Congolese government in November 1997 and centred on natural resource-based partnerships in copper and cobalt, diamonds, tin, gold in the east of the country, along with hydro-electric development, forestry, oil and agriculture elsewhere.

[98] The Congolese government rejected the Bechtel proposal, devising its own three-year development plan, which it brought to a World Bank-sponsored "Friends of the Congo" meeting of seventeen countries as well as international institutions in Brussels in December 1997; donors pledged to commit $450m.

[102] After the Congolese government's cancelation of America Mineral Fields' tender for the Kolwezi copper/cobalt tailings concession in early 1998,[103] Colonel Willy Mallants, a former Belgian advisor to Mobutu and in 1996–97 economic adviser to Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, and Robert Stewart announced in Brussels, in May 1998, the establishment of the "Conseil de la République Fédérale Démocratique du Congo", with Stewart as "Economic, Industrial, Diplomatic and Financial Counsellor to the Council", with the aim to overthrow President Laurent Kabila within one year's time.

[135] Since 1984, Terre Sans Frontières, headquartered in La Prairie, Quebec, reports that it has delivered CDN$10 m. in aid projects to the Upper-Uele region of northern DRC, focusing on improved access to health, safe drinking water, education, and community economic development.

[138][139] L'Entraide missionnaire, based in Montreal, has participated since 1989 in missionary and development NGO working groups focusing on Democratic Republic of Congo (Table de concertation sur les droits humains au Congo-Kinshasa) and the African Great Lakes regions (Table de concertation sur la région des Grands-Lacs), and has regularly presented evidence on Congolese human rights issues at sessions of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Congo-related projects, for which the executing agency partner was the World Bank or International Monetary Fund, including the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control, and the Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants.

Congo over the last two decades have consisted of articles of second-hand clothing and other used textiles, followed by food (chiefly wheat, milk powder, and dried peas), and mining equipment and supplies.

[148] In 2001, humanitarian groups working in rebel-occupied areas of the DRC reported to a United Nations Panel of Experts of "women in some villages who have simply stopped taking their children to the health centres because they no longer possess simple items of clothing to preserve their dignity".

[150] Source[150] When sorted according to the top twenty-five industry categories between 1992 and 2009, "other recyclable material[s]" (NAICS code 41819) head the list in every year except for 1995, representing 54.5% of all Canadian exports to the DRC, or US$119m.

[162][163][164][165] Projelec also partnered in 2009 with Rosemère, Quebec-based LTCC Hydro in a micro-hydroelectric power service on the Mpioka River to serve the Kimbanguist Christian community of Nkambe in Bas-Congo province.

[180][181] Laval, Quebec-based Corporation Carbon2Green received preliminary authorisation from the Congolese government in 2008 to undertake the cultivation of the biofuel crop, Jatropha, on degraded soils unsuitable for food production in Bandundu Province, to supply rural electrification projects in the DRC, and the company plans to explore methane gas recovery from Lake Kivu.

In the diamonds sector, Montreal-based Emaxon Financial International Inc. is currently active, while seven other Canadian junior companies reported previous ownership of properties in the DRC during 2001–2009, including Canaf Group and BRC DiamondCore.

Congo projects sponsored or proposed for sponsorship by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation up to early 2011 were for Canadian-owned companies active in the DRC: to Kolwezi/Kingamyambo Musonoi Tailings SARL owned by Adastra Minerals Inc.

[196] Congolese refugees in Canada have come typically from the provinces of Kasai, Bandundu, Bas-Congo and the Kivus, belonging to the Luba, Kongo, Mbala, Hunde and Nande ethnic groups, and about four-fifths make their home in Montreal.

Congo, meeting with President Joseph Kabila Kabange and touring the CIDA-funded Ngaliema Clinic in Kinshasa, and visiting the North Kivu province governor Julien Paluku Kahongya, Canadian members of the UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO and the partially Canadian-funded HEAL Africa Hospital, in Goma.

[204] During 2008–2009, retired Canadian Major Philip Lancaster served as Chief of the United Nations Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) initiative for MONUSCO in Goma in the eastern DRC.

Congo's Prime Minister, Adolphe Muzito, reported that Canada "contributed enormously to the development" of his country, with 22 Canadian companies employing 13,000 persons in the energy and mining sectors.

[210] The DR Congolese Information Minister, Lambert Mende, was quoted as saying that "Canada did something that disrupted our efforts as it took a lot for us to meet the debt relief conditions, but we have no problem with them and we will follow our relations with them as usual".

Congo, initiated a class action complaint in a Montreal court on behalf of relatives and survivors of killings committed by the Congolese military of over seventy unarmed civilians in Kilwa, Katanga Province during 2004, for which the Canadian-incorporated Anvil Mining allegedly provided logistical support.