Key dates in the post-independence history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where presidential elections will be held on Sunday:
– End of Belgian rule –
On June 30, 1960, the Belgian Congo becomes independent. Power is shared between Joseph Kasa-Vubu, the president, and his prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.
Rivalry between the two quickly plunges the country into chaos. On July 5, a mutiny breaks out in the army.
In 1961, Lumumba, a popular figure in the campaign for independence from Belgium, is assassinated. Colonel Joseph-Desire Mobutu plays a key role in his murder, in which some foreign powers are also implicated.
Several provinces, notably mineral-rich Katanga in the southeast, secede. A wave of violence unfurls, causing at least 500,000 deaths by 1965.
– Name change –
On November 24, 1965, Mobutu — now a general — stages a coup and imposes dictatorial rule. In 1971 he renames the country the Republic of Zaire and changes his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko.
Two years later, he establishes the nationalist ideology of “Zairianisation” that involves pushing out foreign economic powers and replacing them with national ones.