Anniversary of the American and Belgian coup in Congo
On a day like yesterday in 1960, Congolese revolutionary leader Patrice Lumumba was overthrown in a bloody CIA-backed coup. The coup and the subsequent assassination of Lumumba deprived Africa of one of the continent's greatest pan-African and anti-imperialist leaders.
Lumumba became the first elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960 after the independence of the country from Belgium. 60 years of Belgian rule in the Congo was a time full of terror and genocide that left 15 million dead and looted the country's wealth.
The United States was the first ally of the colonialists in the Congo. The Congress of Berlin in 1884 granted King Leopold II of Belgium not only colonial control but private ownership of the entire 2600,000 square kilometer Congo Basin. Seven months earlier, the United States had recognized his claim to the land.
Under the control of the Belgian Congo, the United States obtained a strategic share of the country's vast natural wealth and the uranium used to make the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Congo had become vital to US global hegemony.
When Lumumba became Prime Minister in June 1960, he promised a break with imperialism and an end to foreign control over the resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and supported pan-African solidarity. His administration both threatened US corporate interests and fueled US Cold War paranoia.
▫️ In a writing by Alan Dulles, the head of the CIA, on August 25, 1960, it is said: "We are facing a person who is similar to Castro or worse." He subsequently instructed the CIA station chief in the Congo: "The removal of Lumumba must be an immediate and primary objective ... and a high priority in our covert operations."
Both the United States and Belgium sent cash and aid to rival politicians, leading to the kidnapping and assassination of Lumumba by Colonel Joseph Mobutu's forces. Under Mobutu's leadership, the neo-colonial dominance of the Global North was ensured over the country.
During his three decades of bloody US- and European-backed rule, Mobutu, the Congolese dictator, controlled more than 20 percent of the Democratic Republic of Congo's assets, and his personal fortune reached $5 billion, equal to the country's foreign debt.
Today, the Democratic Republic of Congo is still suffering from the consequences of Lumumba's murder. The country has roughly $24 trillion worth of raw minerals, including nearly half of the world's known reserves of cobalt, a mineral found in the batteries of nearly every electronic device, from phones to electric cars.
While multinational corporations continue to plunder the wealth of the Republic of Congo, it is among the five poorest countries in the world, with approximately 60 million people living on less than $1.9 a day.
