On this day 51 years ago, the Mining State of South Kasai seceded from the Republic of the Congo (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not to be confused with the neighbouring country which is also known as Republic of the Congo). The Belgian Congo had achieved independence on 20 June 1960, with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president.
The times were turbulent in the Congo because of inter-ethnic power struggles, and many groups including the CIA plotted ways of getting rid of Lumumba because of his communist sympathies. On 11 July 1960, less than two weeks after the Republic of Congo became independent, the province of Katanga declared independence from Congo, and a month later South Kasai under the leadership of Albert Kalonji followed suit.
In September 1960 Lumumba was deposed by Mobutu in a coup d’état, and murdered some four months later. In the second half of 1961 Congo invaded South Kasai, massacring thousands of civilians and arresting Kalonji in December 1961. South Kasai was re-integrated into Congo, followed by Katanga in 1963. Over the course of a subsequent 30-year reign, Mobutu managed to reduce the reintegrated country to the poorest in the world.