The Congo Crisis was a period of political turmoil, secession and civil war in the newly independent Republic of the Congo, today the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from July 1960 to November 1965. It began days after independence from Belgium, drew in UN peacekeepers and both sides of the Cold War, and saw the killing of the first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Around 100,000 people are believed to have died. It ended with Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in control of the country.
A hurried independence
Nationalist pressure, including riots in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), pushed Belgium to convene a round table conference in early 1960, where Congolese leaders secured independence for 30 June 1960, far sooner than Belgium had planned. Elections in May made Lumumba's MNC the largest party; Lumumba became prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu president. Little had been done to prepare the country, and disputes over federalism and ethnic politics were unresolved.
Mutiny and secession
On 5 July 1960 soldiers mutinied against their white officers after the Belgian commander of the army told them independence would change nothing. Lumumba replaced the Belgian commander, promoted every Black soldier by at least one rank and made Mobutu army chief of staff, but violence against whites spread and Belgium flew in paratroopers without the government's consent. On 11 July Moïse Tshombe declared the mineral-rich province of Katanga independent, with backing from Belgium and the mining company Union Minière; South Kasai followed in August. Together the two regions had provided about 40 per cent of state revenue.
The UN and the Cold War
The UN Security Council demanded Belgian withdrawal and sent a peacekeeping force, but Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld refused to use it against the secessionists. Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union, which sent advisers and equipment, alarming the United States. Government troops attacking South Kasai massacred Luba civilians, killing around 3,000. In September 1960 Kasa-Vubu dismissed Lumumba, the two men tried to remove each other, and Mobutu resolved the deadlock with a coup, expelling the Soviet advisers. Lumumba was placed under house arrest, escaped, was captured in December and was handed over to the Katangese authorities. On 17 January 1961 he was executed by Katangese troops with the involvement of Belgian officers. In 2001 Belgium apologised for its "moral responsibility" in his death.
Lumumba's supporters set up a rival government under Antoine Gizenga in Stanleyville (now Kisangani), which collapsed in January 1962. After Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash near Ndola in September 1961, the UN took a more forceful line. South Kasai's secession ended in 1962, and UN operations at the end of that year brought down Katanga, whose last stronghold surrendered on 17 January 1963.
The Simba rebellion
A new constitution in 1964 renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tshombe returned from exile as prime minister. Discontent with the government fed rebellions in Kwilu and then across the east, where rebels calling themselves Simbas took Stanleyville and proclaimed a People's Republic, backed by the Soviet Union, China and Cuba. The Simbas carried out mass killings of their opponents, while government forces, spearheaded by white mercenaries, committed their own abuses. In November 1964 Belgian paratroopers carried in American aircraft landed at Stanleyville to free white hostages, and the rebellion soon collapsed.
Mobutu takes power
After elections in 1965, a deadlock between Tshombe and Kasa-Vubu paralysed the government. On 25 November 1965 Mobutu seized power in a bloodless coup, with Western support. He went on to rule as a dictator, renaming the country Zaire in 1971, until he was overthrown in 1997.
On our maps
Our 1945 map shows the Belgian Congo under colonial rule, and the 1960 map shows the year of independence and the start of the crisis.
In pictures
2 images · scroll →From the atlas
Congo Crisis in time and on the map
Congo Crisis lasted from 1960 to 1966. Borders of Time has one world map from those years: 1960. The nearest maps from before and after are 1960 and 1985; compare them side by side.
Living through it, among others on this site: Anwar Sadat (1918–1981), Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006), Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970), Che Guevara (1928–1967), Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969).
Other events of the same years: Satsuma Rebellion (1877–2005), Nahda (1900–2000), Great Migration (1916–1970), Cold War (1945–1991), Decolonisation of Africa (1950–1975), Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), Algerian War (1954–1962), Civil rights movement (1954–1968), Vietnam War (1955–1975) and Dirty War (1955–1989).
Next to it in time on this site: before, Treaty of Rome (1957) and Great Leap Forward (1958–1962); after, Second-wave feminism (1960–1980) and Sharpeville massacre (1960).
Quick answers
- When did Congo Crisis happen?
- It began in 1960 and ended in 1966, lasting 6 years.
- Where did Congo Crisis take place?
- Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).
- How did the map change?
- Compare the atlas’s maps of 1960 and 1985 side by side.