PRELUDE

The prominent Belgian mining enterprise is known as Union Miniere du Haut Katanga which covers nearly all mining operations in the state of Katanga and one of the most lucrative mining enterprises in Africa received the grim news on July 9th. The Lumumba Government in retaliation to the Belgian military intervention nationalized all assets of UMHK within the Congo and granted all aforementioned assets to the personal control of Moise Tshombe, the party leader of CONAKAT and policy leader of Katanga. Evidently, a gambit to guarantee Tshombe’s unwavering loyalty to the Congolese state, CONAKAT rallied in favor of Lumumba’s government reorganizing the assets into a new private mining enterprise controlled by CONAKAT. The infamous Katanga Gendarmerie was thus activated on behalf of the Congolese government to assist the AAC in pacifying the country. However, the bellicose move caused uproar in Belgium as the powerful mining lobby in the Belgian government successfully called for an expanded Belgian intervention in a bid to recover their assets.

On July 10th President Kasa Vubu rejected consent towards a Belgian intervention to stabilize the country, arguing that the AAC and their allies were already handling the situation and that considering the main troublemakers being the settler militias and Force Publique mutineers, the rest of the country is seeing a moderated return to normal with the AAC taking police duties, claiming that it is Belgium who is exacerbating the situation for political and economic gain in a “neo-colonial attempt to retake the Congo by force” Belgian paratrooper battalions seized the airport at the town of Kabalo in the province of Katanga and deploying air assault infantry through transport aircraft. The Katanga Gendarmerie was informed of this development and deployed to intercept.

July 11th: The Force Publique effectively ceased to exist as a coherent and organized body, entire battalions fight amongst themselves with many cases of fratricide towards white officers. Other battalions desert into the AAC while a tiny minority, reaffirm their allegiance to the Belgian state. Most battalions were majority white. Brutal sporadic gunfire erupted today as white settler militias clashed with AAC troops across the country with the casualties rising to the hundreds, Reprisal killings are not uncommon after the Belgian intervention.

The recent events have caught the eye of two unlikely powers: The State of Israel and Brazil. Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir arrived in the Congo as a neutral arbiter to de-escalate tensions in the area, with Israeli NGOs and an “agricultural mission” to help the Congolese government.

The Brazillian government in response pressured diplomatically to the Belgians to withdraw from the Congo immediately warning of consequences should they refuse to. While the international community is still seeing what those consequences might be on behalf of Brazil remain to be seen. Nevertheless, the conflict has gathered direct international attention.

July 12th-14th The Battle of Matadi.

Due to Kasa Vubu’s declaration, the AAC now views Belgian troops as hostile and is ordered to stop them from entering the country. In the commotion, Belgian citizens and white settlers flee from the country in droves, taking passage wherever they can. The Belgian Navy enters the town of Matadi with the objective to seize it and deploy expeditionary battalions onto the Congo.

The AAC garrison is alerted by the locals of the Belgian landing as 500 Belgian Naval Infantry descends onto the port, moving quickly to seize all critical infrastructure. As they move in they see no hostiles and grow confident, up until they are surprised by a Congolese 76mm artillery barrage. The chaos ensues as Belgian minesweepers fire their guns onto the city, Due to their numerical inferiority, the 102-man garrison stood firm. Brazillian assistance through the supply of French-speaking NCOs proved instrumental in keeping discipline within the Congolese ranks. A lucky strike by the artillery battery hit a fuel truck near a Belgian position taking out 16 Belgian troops. Both sides refuse to give in with the Belgians edging closer towards taking the town.

2 days later Congolese reinforcements arrived in the shape of a brand new motorized infantry battalion of 412 soldiers crewed by the most experienced troops and officers Congo has at the time. American trucks and weapons proved invaluable as artillery continued raining down on the city. With Congolese reinforcements, the Belgians were forced to withdraw to the ships in a humiliating defeat for the colonial power. Civilian casualties number in the hundreds as Matadi The arrival of the Congolese intensified the escape of the Belgian population in the region with harrowing sights of white civilians packed in Belgian ships fleeing the conflict.

July 15th United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Congo

With the passage of the UN Resolution for the establishment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo. UN troops are authorized to intervene in the Congo on behalf of the Lumumba government, 4,000 troops of varying national backgrounds will embark and move into the Congo to ensure a swift Belgian withdrawal from the Congo. Spearheaded by Secretary General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld, the mission was reinforced by Filipino, Mali, Ethiopian, Irish, and Swedish troops amongst multiple other nations deploying scores of light infantry. Little did they know of the tribulations they will face moving forward.

THE BELGIAN EXIT, OR RATHER LACK THEREOF

The Belgian government was reportedly surprised over the resulting UNSC vote supporting a peacekeeping mission in the Congo, hedging their bets that their fellow colonial states: the United Kingdom and France, would back them in this situation. They were nonetheless disappointed with a British abstention and French approval of the mission which would undoubtedly force the Belgians to withdraw from the Congo and scale back their ambitions or else face the wrath of a much harsher international condemnation.

However, the Belgians were not so much willing to just go up and leave and let the Congolese get away with such insolence, Belgian air assault battalions landed across the country and seized critical airfields without much of a fight with the exception of Matapo and Leopoldville which saw significant combat between Belgian special forces and the Congolese Army. With the intent to evacuate every white settler and personnel of the country, the public intent being to endure the safety of Belgian citizens evidently shaped up to be a scheme to drain the Congo of specialized personnel. Tens of thousands of settlers and hundreds of administrators fled to the airfields and booked up planes to leave anywhere out of the Congo. Many more settlers left through vehicles, or ships with the Congolese doing little to stop their departure. The Belgian involvement took a much more egregious turn with a targeted air campaign to knock out important infrastructure within the Congo. Belgian F-86s bombed critical railroads and roads cutting off contact from Leopoldville to the rest of the Congo for weeks until Congolese repair crews began working on repairs. Airfields controlled by the Congo have been stocked in the airfields full of equipment and trash in an attempt to prevent UN forces from landing via air. As time went on, United Nations troops were forced into open warfare with Belgian security forces in order to force them out of the country, leading to the deaths of multiple UN and Belgian troops. Operations resumed throughout the month until the Belgian High Command authorized a withdrawal from the Congo on September 27th, 1960

COMING TO THE REALIZATION

Moise Tshombe sat at his office desk in Elizabethville contemplating his options. The Katanga Gendarmerie, numbering 2,000 men alongside mercenary squads finally restored order to his province by July 18th. By Lumumba’s orders, all assets by the Union Miniere du Haut Katanga were to be reorganized into a new enterprise controlled directly by Tshombe and CONAKAT, where in exchange for granting ownership of the nationalized assets, Katanga would help fund the Leopoldville government and Tshombe would remain loyal within the framework of the Congolese Federal state. Tshombe however came to the realization that realistically speaking, Le Capital had little ability to enforce anything on Katanga or play a check on Tshombe’s power, indirectly granting Tshombe and Katanga effective independence in how he would rule his territory. The far enough distance from the capital and legal framework organized within the Republic would allow Tshombe options he would not normally have as an independent state, the potential for wrestling political influence within the Congo as the more dominant economically stable province. It is with this fact, that perhaps Lumumba may have permitted the architects of his own demise to plot against him under the guise of loyalty. There is however one thing Tshombe lacks that would make him a threat to Lumumba: ambition…Thus moving ahead to consolidate his power, he lobbied successfully for CONAKAT to restore certain privileges to white settlers within Katanga to ensure administrators of the colonial era do not leave the country as well as start negotiations to restore UMHK in the region arguing under the guise of decisions based on free market reform.

THE PERFECT STORM

Meanwhile, as Lumumba’s government celebrate their victory at Matadi, after Lumumba’s speech denouncing the Belgian invaders which saw an enormous standing ovation by the rest of the Congolese government, for one small glimpse we would see the Republic of the Congo united in song. President Kasa Vubu, Prime Minister Lumumba, and Chief of Staff Mpolo put aside their differences and joined against a common threat. It would be the last time the three men ruled unquestionably across the Congo. Within the span of a week, Mpolo’s office was bombarded with an avalanche of communique and letters from military units of the AAC reporting dangerously worrying situations across the North, low supplies, rising unrest, as a new threat emerges from the mud threatening to dismantle what Lumumba and his allies have painstakingly built: Ethnic and sectarian violence. See while the Federalist Congo project in principle and under good conditions would ensure stability as the very diverse Congo in principle would benefit from such an arrangement. But the dangerous lack of capable civil administrators, the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground, the extremely high deficit in the Treasury, the decentralization of the African Army of the Congo, the Belgian intervention, and subsequent air raids on key infrastructure, and personal loyalties of individual soldiers towards their sectarian backgrounds rather than loyalty to the state, have created the perfect storm for a crisis of unthinkable proportions. One by one, AAC and Force Publique companies and battalions stopped responding, with troops resorting to sectarian lines as supplies and funding run thin, the lack of policing, ensured that crime exponentially increased in isolated cities, prompting the communities and villages to arm up to protect themselves. By early September, almost the entirety of Northern Congo collapsed into civil war, anarchy, and sectarian violence. Only Katanga, South Kasai, and the Leopoldville province are under the governance of a centralized body. The loss of the north did at least, manage to prolong the survival of the treasury for at least a few more months. Taking advantage of the chaos, Albert Kalonji of the Luba people, sponsored by the Belgian mining enterprise Forminiere, staked his claim, becoming de facto independent from the Congo, worsening the financial chaos in the country.

MOBUTU’S COUP

The seemingly catastrophic consequences besieging the young republic prompted young Joseph-Desiree Mobutu, a prominent staff officer within the AAC to execute his long-planned coup d’etat. Receiving a fruitful phone call with members of UMHK and the Belgian government where in exchange for reinstatement of UMHK in the Congo and being a de facto Belgian sponsor, he would receive $50 million USD as well as personal control of 35% of the company’s profits. Gathering a select few sympathizers within the AAC who were disillusioned with Lumumba’s government after the crisis in the North escalated beyond control. On September 26th, 1960, Colonel Mobutu and his officers raided the government building in Le Capital, Armed with FALs, they ordered President Kasa Vubu and Prime Minister Lumumba to step down on behalf of the Republic. Shooting in the air and threatening to open fire on the crowd should anybody do anything funny. Chief of Staff Mpolo however was present in the meeting room, pulling two pistols from his waist and pointing them at Mobutu and ordering all of Mobutu’s men to stand down using his higher rank to prompt them. Considering the amount of disorder plaguing the Congo, the Capital troops were disciplined and loyal to the Kasa Vubu government placing Mobutu into a predicament. Would he risk pitting himself into a siege knowing that the Motorized Africa Rifles would arrive any minute where he knows would be arrested and executed for treason, or will he escape to greener pastures to chart his destiny forwards? He knew what option to pick. Mobutu was not going to die here. Thus he ordered his followers to exit the building and escape. In a split-second decision, Mpolo let the man go, holding his fire as the coup plotters run away. Taking a plane to Elisabethville, Mobutu would leave for the only man he can rely on: Moise Tshombe of Katanga.

MORE CALAMITY

The collapse of central authority in Northern Congo is bound to cause untold amounts of chaos on the bordering countries and territories of the Republic of the Congo: Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Ruanda Urundi, Sudan, Uganda, and Angola. These territories have already seen a massive uptick in border incursions and a spillover of ethnic tensions leading to crises by proxy. The French Community and British military were placed on high alert on their respective colonial borders, placing scores of army battalions and colonial forces on the border to ensure security in the area. Ruanda Urundi has been significantly affected by the crisis as Kigali struggles with the porous border. Meanwhile in Katanga, under the urging of newly appointed Gendarmerie commander Joseph-Desiree Mobutu, successfully convinced Moise Tshombe to unnationalize the Congolese section of UMHK inviting back investors and Belgian personnel to reopen the mines. Shortly after the withdrawal, the Belgians left behind containers and boxes stocked to the brim with equipment and supplies for the Katangan Gendarmerie, as well as a select few special weapons such as armored vehicles and military aircraft. While the calamity ensures, the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission has done… nothing of interest as of late. With the UN secretary general being apprehensive towards involving themselves in internal Congolese affairs, only ensuring the Belgians withdraw from the region, UN troops do little to actually prevent much of the chaos consuming Northern Congo.

After Mobutu’s failed coup. Lumumba’s government has now reached a terrible predicament, long thought over as a government of morals and upstanding democratic governance, now has large swaths of his nation falling to anarchy, and two of his most wealthy and prominent promises now having their loyalties into question. The Treasury is a nightmare, the AAC is in shambles and his government only controls 10% of the Congo’s original territory. Lumumba however despite all these tribulations, enduring what no contemporary government can or should endure, has only emerged more determined to unite his country at all costs, even if it's against the principles he has followed for so long. Thus in October, he launched an offensive east to restore order to the Congo, if it can't be done by words, then it has to be done by the sword.

Lumumba’s Government however is living on borrowed time, with the Treasury stating that if alternative modes of financing are not met by April 1961, the Leopoldville government will be forced to default, facing a total collapse of the Republic. Should that event come to pass, then all hope is lost for the Congo.

CASUALTIES

REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: 268 dead

KATANGA: 67 dead

BELGIUM: 175 dead

UNITED NATIONS: 161

UAR 15 Sweden 26 Philippines 18 Ethiopia 27 Sudan 9 Ireland 20 Mali 6 Venezuela 15 Madagascar 8 Malaya 17

CIVILIAN: Unknown

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