This Day in History: February 3, 1961
Additional Date: February 3, 1961
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.