The late Patrice Lumumba was the first legally elected prime minister

The late Patrice Lumumba was the first legally elected prime minister of D.R Congo. He was assassinated in 1961 following a military coup supported by U.S.A & Belgian imperialism which was admitted by US State Dept in 2013 authorized by president Eisenhower. For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo's destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo.

In the few months prior to his assassination, Lumumba had been the first elected prime minister of the Republic of the Congo, newly founded on June 30, 1960. A revolutionary nationalist, he was a major leader in the country’s fight for independence from Belgian colonialism. He intended to use the country’s vast resources to improve the lives of the Congolese people. They had endured unspeakable suffering under Belgian rule, with literally millions having died on its plantations and in its mines.

His rise to power alarmed Belgium. While having been forced to grant the Congolese people formal independence, it had no intention of giving them real independence or surrendering its economic interests in the mineral-rich land rubber, ivory, and copper, diamonds, gold & more. Nor did U.S. imperialism. By 1960s, it too was exploiting the Congo’s resources & was determined to expand its economic, political & military influence in Africa. It wanted to establish a compliant, bought-off government that wouldn’t stand in its way & they saw him as a threat.

The U.S. with Belgian assistance, began plotting to remove Lumumba from office and silence him...for good. To accomplish this, they took advantage of the fact that the country was not yet really in the hands of, as Lumumba had put it, “its own children.” Behind the façade of formal independence, Belgian military officers still controlled the Congo’s army and police. The mineral corporations still had tight control over the wealth of the country and over an apparatus of corrupt politicians.

Secret agents of the U.S. CIA, Belgian intelligence, and other powers were working day and night to keep power firmly and permanently in the hands of forces subservient to imperialism. Among those eager to collaborate with imperialism was Joseph Mobutu. He had been a colonel in the Belgian colonial army, and was made head of the “new” imperialist-controlled army. And Mobutu was working hand-in-hand with the CIA on how to kill Patrice Lumumba.

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