ABSTRACT
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)* was freed from nearly a hundred years of Belgian colonial rule in June 1960. Immediately, a brutal civil war broke out in this vast land of diverse ethnic groups and semiautonomous provinces. Belgian troops remained, and UN troops were flown in. The left-wing government of Patrice Lumumba, elected in the first national elections, was overthrown, and Lumumba was allegedly ordered killed by Katangese separatist leader Moise Tshombe. By 1964, the Katangese separatist movement was crushed by a combination of UN forces and Congolese troops under the command
of Army Chief of Staff Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko). Tshombe was forced into exile and died in 1969.
