Incumbents

Events

2017: Morgan Stanley projects 1 billion electric vehicles in use globally by 2050 and 800% increase in demand for cobalt, used in electric car batteries, by 2026.^[1]
February 2017 - Glencore agreed to pay Dan Gertler $534m (£407m) for his share of their joint mining interests in DR Congo.^[2]
14 February 2017 – The UN reveals that Congolese soldiers had killed 101 people including 30 women while fighting the Kamwina Nsapu rebels in Kasaï-Central.^[3]
23 March 2017 – 2017 Congolese police decapitation attacks
22 April 2017 to 1 July 2017 – 2017 Democratic Republic of the Congo Ebola virus outbreak
July 2017 - United Nations has documented 80 mass graves in Kasai unrest that began in August 2016^[4]
7 August 2017 -Congolese soldiers forces killed at least 14 Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) rebels in clashes in the capital Kinshasa and southwestern city of Matadi.A policeman also died.^[5]
16 August 2017 – 2017 DR Congo landslide
26 August 2017 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo gubernatorial elections, 2017, are held in 11 provinces.
29 August 2017 – Three provinces have a second round of voting as part of the gubernatorial elections.
6 November 2017 - details emerge in Paradise Papers reporting of a loan from Glencore to Dan Gertler in 2008 when it needed to renegotiate its agreement with state mining company Gécamines for its Katanga mine.^[2]
7 December 2017 – 2017 Semuliki attack
21 December 2017 – Delayed gubernatorial elections are held in three provinces (Kasaï-Central, Mongala, and Equateur).

2017 trends

2017: the price of cobalt increased 127% over the course of 2017.^[6]
2017: Congo DR produced 64,000 metric tons of cobalt.^[7]

Deaths

1 February – Étienne Tshisekedi, politician (b. 1932).^[8]

References

^ ROB NIKOLEWSKI (February 22, 2018). "Electric vehicles' future relies on cobalt. It's often mined by children and is soaring in price". Los Angeles Times.
^ ^a ^b "Paradise Papers documents raise questions over African mining deal". BBC Panorama. BBC. 6 November 2017.
^ "UN: Soldiers kill 101 in clashes with Kamwina Nsapu".
^ Caritas (8 November 2017). "Keeping watch in Kasai in Congo". ReliefWeb.
^ "Congo security forces kill at least 14 in rebel clashes: Clashes followed attack by BDK members on Kinshasa's main prison and protests by other members against President Kabila". Al-Jazeera.
^ Cobalt: A Metal Poised to Peak (Report). Stratfor. January 8, 2018. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018.
^ Rob Nikolewski (March 1, 2018). "The electric vehicle revolution has a cobalt problem". San Diego Union-Tribune.
^ Ross, Aaron (2 February 2017). "Congo's main opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, dies at 84". Reuters. Retrieved 5 February 2017.

v t e Years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Congo Free State	1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908
Belgian Congo	1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960
Republic of Congo	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
Democratic Republic of the Congo	1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971
Zaire	1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
DR Congo	1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

v t e 2017 in Africa
Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
States with limited recognition	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland
Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Ascension Island Mayotte Réunion Saint Helena Tristan da Cunha Western Sahara