Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces

Date: 3 Feb 1961
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces

Fierce fighting erupted between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and United Nations (UN) forces in Congo. The fight came almost a year after parliamentary elections in May 1960, where the National Congolese Movement (MNC) became the country's strongest party. Subsequently, its leader, Lumumba who would be assassinated became the new Congo Prime Minister. Lumumba was arrested by Col. Mobutu Seseseko's soldiers and transferred to Elizabethville, Katanga, where he was murdered in January, 1961. In an official broadcast just days before he was declared dead, the Katanga Government announced that Lumumba, 36, had escaped from Kolatey prison farm in the west of the breakaway province.

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How we know this

01Spartacus Educational, ‘Patrice Lumumba’, [online], available at www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk (Accessed: 14 January 2013)
02Answers.com, ‘Patrice Lumumba’, [online], available at www.answers.com (Accessed: 14 January 2013)
03BBC, ‘1961: Ex-Congo PM declared dead’, 13 February, [online], available at news.bbc.co.uk (Accessed: 14 January 2013)

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2013, January 30). Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094732

South African History Online (2013) 'Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces', South African History Online, 30 January. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094732 (Accessed: 1 October 2026).

South African History Online, Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094732, (accessed 1 October 2026).

"Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces." South African History Online, 30 Jan. 2013, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094732. Accessed 1 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Fierce fighting erupts between pro-Patrice Lumumba troops and UN forces." South African History Online. January 30, 2013. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0094732.