Congo Crisis

The Congo Crisis began almost immediately after the Belgian Congo gained independence on 30 June 1960 under Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasavubu. Within days, the Force Publique mutinied against its Belgian officers, Belgium redeployed troops ostensibly to protect European nationals, and the mineral-rich province of Katanga declared secession under Moïse Tshombe on 11 July 1960, followed by a separate secession in South Kasai.

The crisis drew in the United Nations, which authorized the ONUC peacekeeping operation through Security Council Resolution 143 (14 July 1960). ONUC eventually grew to roughly 20,000 personnel and was tasked with securing the withdrawal of Belgian forces and, later, ending the Katangese secession. It became one of the UN's largest and most controversial early peacekeeping missions, including the use of offensive force in operations such as Morthor (1961) and Grandslam (1962–63).

The crisis featured several pivotal events:

• A constitutional rupture in September 1960 in which Kasavubu and Lumumba attempted to dismiss each other, followed by Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu's first coup.
• The capture and killing of Patrice Lumumba in Katanga in January 1961, with later acknowledged involvement by Belgian officials and complicity of Western intelligence services.
• The death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, on 18 September 1961, while en route to ceasefire talks.
• The end of Katangese secession in January 1963 and the suppression of the leftist Simba rebellion in 1964–65.

The crisis closed with Mobutu's second coup on 24 November 1965, inaugurating a 32-year authoritarian rule. The episode reshaped Cold War politics in Africa, tested the limits of UN peacekeeping doctrine, and became a touchstone case for debates over sovereignty, intervention, and decolonization.