On this day 51 years ago, the legally elected prime minister of the Republic of the Congo was declared dead by officials in the province of Katanga. The official position was that he had been killed by villagers trying to take him into custody. He had in fact been tortured and murdered some four weeks earlier, with the complicity of the government of Belgium and the CIA, a fact with the Belgian government admitted and officially apologised for in 2002.
Congo’s independence had occurred on 30th June 1960. Lumumba’s party had won the elections in May of that year, and as a result he became prime minister. At the independence day ceremony which was attended by the Belgian king and various dignitaries, Lumumba gave a speech which was quite frank about the suffering of the Congolese people under Belgian colonialism, leaving the Belgian dignitaries feeling insulted.
Shortly afterwards, Lumumba raised the pay of all government employees other than the army, which was led by Belgian officers. Army rebellions spread throughout the country, and chaos broke out. In September 1960, Colonel Mobutu seized power in a military coup and Lumumba was placed under house arrest. He escaped, but was captured in December and then sent to Katanga on 17 January 1961, where he was executed by Belgian-led firing squads.