Algeria is plunged into a brutal civil war between a military junta and Muslim terrorists

The New York company Dance Theatre of Harlem tours South Africa, with the slogan 'Dancing Through Barriers'

UNITA revives the Angolan civil war after the MPLA wins a decisive election victory

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

Apartheid ends in South Africa, after two thirds of white voters vote for its abolition in a referendum

Guinea's first democratic election is won by the incumbent president, Lansana Conté

The UN imposes sanctions because of Libya's refusal to cooperate in the Lockerbie air disaster enquiry

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

Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their partnership in South Africa

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US and European troops are withdrawn from the UN force in turbulent Somalia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

A new constitution in South Africa guarantees equal rights to all citizens

South Africa's first non-racial election is won by the ANC with 63% of the vote

Nelson Mandela is sworn in as the first president of the new democratic South Africa

Hastings Banda, president since independence in 1964, is defeated in Malawi's first multiparty elections

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

With apartheid ended, South Africa rejoins the Commonwealth of Nations

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