v20_1553 - CONGO - PROVINCE OF KATANGA 5 francs or 1961

CONGO - PROVINCE OF KATANGA

(1961)

Congo's independence was proclaimed on July 1, 1960. Eleven days later, Katanga seceded. Moïse Tschombé was appointed head of state on August 8, 1960. Katanga was an extremely rich region thanks to copper, tin, zinc, manganese, uranium and platinum mines, and negotiations between the central government of Léopoldville (Kinshasa) and those of Elisabethville (Lubumbashi), failed. Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) requested the intervention of the UN, which sent troops to repress the Katangese insurrection, but did not want to take part in the conflict which opposed Prime Minister Lumumba to President Kasavubu. Lumumba was dismissed in September 1960, arrested on December 1 in Stanleyville and executed in January 1961 in Katanga. The UN intervened on September 13, 1961. Katanga's resistance was broken in December 1962. Katanga, renamed Shaba in 1972, again attempted secession out of the Congolese quagmire.