For Lumumba, the alternative is clear. He can either put up with external pressures and accept that the Europeans decide the future of his country, or affirm once and for all the independence of the Congo. His political past and his fighting temperament led him to choose the second solution.
In August 1960, he began to organize a direct attack on Katanga, using Congolese troops assisted by a few Soviet military advisers . His gesture is more of a challenge than a carefully considered maneuver. The forces he opposes are far too powerful. The operation is a disaster and brings its own downfall.
On September 5, Kasavubu, supported by the United States and Belgium, deposes Lumumba. Fearing a popular uprising. Colonel Joseph Mobutu, of the Congolese army, takes power on September 14. Lumumba was first placed under house arrest, then imprisoned. But faced with the growing discontent of the population, which demanded his release, Lumumba was transferred in January 1961 to Katanga, where he was probably assassinated with the complicity of the Katangese government.
Lumumba even though he stayed. in power for barely three months, has become a symbol of African independence. His death provokes riots and raises protests all over the world; in Cairo. the Belgian Embassy is destroyed by fire. In Stanleyville, where most of his supporters have gathered, Antoine Gizenga, his former deputy, announces that he is forming a new government.
So. in early 1961, the Congo, with its three rival regimes, appeared
on the verge of complete disintegration.
But once Lumumba was dead, everyone strives, both in the Congo and abroad, to preserve the unity of the country. After protracted negotiations between the politicians of Stanleyville and Léopoldville, an agreement was finally reached, and in August 1961 a new central government was formed with Cyrille Adoula, an almost unknown moderate politician, as prime minister and Gizenga as deputy. /P>