São Tomé and Príncipe consists of two main islands—São Tomé Island, where the capital city São Tomé is located and Príncipe—plus several rocky islets. The country gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. It is a founding member of the CPLP.[20]
January 19 – A suspected female Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated her explosives in Kaiga-Kindjiria, western Chad, killing nine civilians.[22]
January 24 – The Ministry of Health of the Central African Republic declares a national measles epidemic. 3,600 cases have been infected and 53 people have died between February 2019 and January 2020.[23]
January 30 – Five new Ebola cases are reported in the Central African Republic.[24]
February 7 – Twenty-eight people are sentenced to 10 to 15 years of hard labor and five Central African Republic Christian militiamen are sentenced to life terms for war crimes and crimes against humanity.[25]
February 11 – Equatorial Guinea Vice-president Teodorin Obiang, 50, is fined 30 million euros ($32.9m) by a French court for embezzling public funds. His assets are seized but he is given a suspended sentence.[27]
February 16 – U.N. peacekeepers and government forces kill twelve members of the Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa in Birao, Vakaga, Central African Republic.[29]
February (date unknown) – Festival Amani dance festival in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo
April 8 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo declares is it is Ebola free. However, two days later a new case is reported.[33]
April 12 – Easter SundayinBeni, Democratic Republic of the Congo is somber as the community struggles with both COVID-19 and its second new case of Ebola. The coronavirus is more contagious but Ebola is more often fatal; the struggle against both is hampered by insurrection in the country.[34]
April 13 – 14,000 cases of COVID-19 and 788 deaths have been reported across Africa. Cases by country: Cameroon – 820, Central African Republic – 8, Chad – 19, Congo-Brazzaville – 70, DR Congo – 234, Equatorial Guinea – 21, Gabon – 49[35]
April 15 – Finance ministers from the Group of 20 agree to put a hold on debt service by poor countries so they can concentrate their efforts on health service and ending the pandemic. 76 countries will be able to participate in the plan, including 40 from Sub-Saharan Africa. $8 billion in private loans and $12 billion in loans from other countries will be frozen for the remainder of 2020 and possibly beyond. Another $12 billion in multilateral loans from organizations such as the World Bank is also under consideration.[36]
April 16 – Forty-four suspected members of Boko Haram are found dead in a cell in a prison in Chad, apparently poisoned. The men were among 58 prisoners placed in a single cell in Ndjamena and were not given anything to eat or drink for two days.[37]
Eight people are killed, 35 injured, and 168 arrested, on a police raid of the Bundu dia Kongo sect that seeks to restore the historical Kingdom of Kongo. Eight officers were seriously injured in the raid.[40]
April 30 – At least 25 people are killed and 51 others wounded in clashes in the northeast of the Central African Republic.[41]
May 8 – Zimbabwe opens its tobacco season after a one-month delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[42]
May 13 – Six members of Cameroon's opposition party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), are arrested for distributing face masks and hand sanitisers in the capital, Yaoundé.[43]
May 19 – At least 40 people are killed by Allied Democratic Forces (ADC) rebels in Samboko, Ituri Province, DR Congo. Seventeen were killed in the nearby village of Makutano the day before.[44]
May 20: State Unification Day, Cameroon[6] President Paul Biya, 87, addresses the nation after two months of silence. "The number of people infected rises day after day, bringing proof that the fight against the pandemic is complex and difficult," he said. Camaroon has had 3,500 cases including 140 deaths from COVID-19.[45]
June 1 – Authorities in DR Congo confirm a second Ebola outbreak, north of Mbandaka. There have also been 3,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 72 deaths, while there have been 369,520 measles cases and 6,779 deaths since 2019.[46]
June 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: Nobel laureate-winning doctor Denis Mukwege quits the task force in eastern Congo, noting testing delays and organizational problems.[48]
June 12 – World Day Against Child Labor: The International Labour Organization and the UNICEF warn that millions of children are likely to be pushed into forced labor because of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.[49]
June 27 – DR Congo justice minister, Celestin Tunda Ya Kasende, is arrested in crisis over judicial reforms.[50] He was released hours later.[51]
June 30: Independence Day, Democratic Republic of the Congo[12]
Thousands of protesters march in Kinshasa, Bukavu, and Kananga; Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the selection of a new election chief aligned with former president Joseph Kabila. Five people were killed in similar protests on July 8.[52]
August 8 – Chadian President Idriss Deby says that Boko Haram has been driven from Chadian territory, but that the extremist group continues to wrack havoc in the Lake Chad area during nighttime excursions from Nigeria.[55]
August 11
Independence Day, Chad (from France, 1960)[10] President Idriss Deby Itno is named a marshal in the country's first-ever military parade.[56]
August 17 – Independence Day, Gabon (from France, 1960)[16]
August 19 – Francisco Pascual Obama Asue is reappointed prime minister of Equatorial Guinea after resigning because of poor performance in a time of crisis. Obama will form a new government.[58]
DR Congo says the measles epidemic that killed 7,000 children under five has ended.[63]
Gerard Mombaza Mombembo "the butcher of Nouabale Ndoki", 35, originally from the DR Congo, is sentenced to 30 years of hard labor for illegal hunting of elephants in Ouésso, Sangha Department, Congo.[64]
September 19 – Central African Republic Civil War: Eric Danboy Bagale, head of former Central African Republic president François Bozizé's guard and head of the mostly Christian anti-Balaka militias following Bozizé's ouster in 2013, is arrested for war crimes in relation to revenge killings.[65]
September 24 – Both the government's Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) and rebel groups are accused of rape and violence against women in Camaroon.[66]
October 12 – Independence Day, Equatorial Guinea (from Spain, 1968)[14]
November 1 – All Saints' Day, Public holiday in the Central African Republic
November 11 – Independence Day, Angola (from Portugal, 1975)[4]
November 16 – COVID-19 pandemic: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns of famines in the developing world in 2021 as economic funds dry up.[67]
December 1 – Republic Day, Central African Republic[8]
December 6 – One person is killed during the first-ever regional elections in Cameroon.[69]
December 7 – Members of Parliament in the DR Congo react violently when President Felix Tshisekedi moves to form a new ruling coalition and hold special elections.[70]
December 15 – French Armed Forces are exposed for meddling in African politics with 84 fake accounts on Facebook and 14 on Instagram. Russia has also used social media to meddle in African politics.[71]
December 21 – Troops from Russia and Rwanda are rushed to the Central African Republic to forestall a coup.[72]
^Tamara Lynn Giles-Vernick; Thomas E. O'Toole; Jan S.F. van Hoogstraten. "Central African Republic". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
^René Lemarchand; Ntsomo Payanzo; Dennis D. Cordell; Bernd Michael Wiese (Feb 28, 2020). "Democratic Republic of the Congo". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
, Cameroon 
, Central African Republic 
, Chad 
, Democratic Republic of the Congo 
, Equatorial Guinea 
, Gabon 
, the Republic of the Congo 
, and São Tomé and Príncipe 
.
