Flashmag Februay 2021 www.flashmag.net
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Belgian troops were sent to Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), the capital, and to Katanga, a mining province which declared its independence on July 11 under Moïse Tshombé. Thousands of Belgians have taken refuge there. Lumumba is asking for help, especially from the United States, the United Nations and the Soviet Union, to block this secession. Soviet advisers arrive in the DRC while UN troops are there on July 14. In the midst of the Cold War, recourse to the Soviets accentuated tensions. President Joseph Kasa-Vubu dismisses Lumumba on September 5. Then, on the 14th, the army chief of staff, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, seized power with the support of Western powers. Under house arrest, Lumumba escaped, before being arrested in December 1960 and transferred the following month to Élisabethville (now Lubumbashi), Katanga. He was executed there on January 17, 1961 with two other political allies, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, in the presence of Katangese politicians and Belgians. This news will not be made public until February. Supporters of the former prime minister will attempt a rebellion, but will be defeated by Mobutu's troops. In 2002, the Belgian Foreign Minister will apologize for his country's role in this tragedy. Considered the father of independence, Lumumba will be rehabilitated as a national hero, on January 17th 1966, the day since became a public holiday in his honor. This, under the chairmanship of Mobutu Sese Seko. The marshal surely had a bad conscience after having played a role, direct or indirect, in the killing of the one who had made him the chief of staff of the Congolese armed forces after a series of mutinies instigated by Belgium, which has been quietly blowing on the embers since the country's accession to independence.
On January 17, 1961, the deposed Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, 35 years old, was assassinated in Katanga with his two co-detainees Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito. Sixty years later, the decision-making game that led to this fatal outcome is still the subject of debate among historians.
Kasa- Vubu congolese president (left )Lumumba center and King Baudouin I of Belgium
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