Editing Mobutu Sese Seko (section)

===Congo Crisis===
{{main|Congo Crisis}}
[[File:Colonel Mobutu.jpg|thumb|Colonel Mobutu in 1960]]
[[File:Mobutu Sese Seko visit to Israel (997009327452605171).jpg|thumb|alt=Mobutu in a 1963 visit to Israel, where he participated in a shortened IDF paratrooper course|Mobutu in a 1963 visit to Israel, where he participated in a shortened [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] paratrooper course]]
On 5 July 1960, soldiers of the [[Force Publique]] stationed at Camp Léopold II in Léopoldville, dissatisfied with their all-white leadership and working conditions, [[1960 Force Publique mutinies|mutinied]]. The revolt spread across the region in the following days. Mobutu assisted other officials in negotiating with the mutineers to secure the release of the officers and their families.{{sfn|Hoskyns|1965|pp=88–89}} On 8 July the full Council of Ministers convened in an extraordinary session under the chairmanship of President [[Joseph Kasa-Vubu]] at Camp Léopold II to address the task of Africanising the garrison.{{sfn|Kanza|1994|p=191}}

The ministers debated over who would make a suitable army chief of staff. The two main candidates for the post were Minister of Youth and Sports [[Maurice Mpolo]] and Mobutu. The former had shown some influence over the mutinying troops, but Kasa-Vubu and the Bakongo ministers feared that he would enact a ''[[coup d'état]]'' if he were given power. The latter was perceived as calmer and more thoughtful.{{sfn|Kanza|1994|p=192}} Lumumba saw Mpolo as courageous, but favored Mobutu's prudence. As the discussions continued, the cabinet began to divide according to who they preferred to serve as chief of staff. Lumumba wanted to keep both men in his government and wished to avoid upsetting one of their camps of supporters.{{sfn|Kanza|1994|p=192}} In the end Mobutu was given the role and awarded the rank of colonel.{{sfn|Kanza|1994|p=193}} The following day government delegations left the capital to oversee the Africanisation of the army; Mobutu was sent to [[Équateur (former province)|Équateur]].{{sfn|Hoskyns|1965|pp=92, 94}} While he was there Mpolo acted as ANC Chief of Staff.{{sfn|Hoskyns|1965|p=136}}{{sfn|Reid|2023|p=176}} Mobutu was affronted by this development, and upon his return to the capital he confronted Lumumba in a cabinet meeting, saying, "Either I was unworthy, and you have to dismiss me, or I faithfully accomplished my mission and so I keep my rank and functions."{{sfn|Reid|2023|p=176}}

The British diplomat [[Brian Urquhart]] serving with the United Nations wrote: "When I first met Mobutu in July 1960, he was Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's chief military assistant and had just promoted himself from sergeant to lieutenant-colonel. By comparison with his boss, Mobutu was a pillar of pragmatism and common sense. It was to him that we appealed when our people were arrested by Lumumba's hashish-stimulated guards. It was he who would bring up, in a disarmingly casual way, Lumumba's most outrageous requests – that the UN should, for example, meet the pay roll of the potentially mutinous Congolese army. In those early days, Mobutu seemed a comparatively sensible young man, one who might even, at least now and then, have the best interests of his newly independent country at heart."<ref name="Urquhart">{{cite web |last1=Urquhart |first1=Brian |title=Character Sketches: Mobutu and Tshombe -Two Congolese Rogues |url=https://news.un.org/en/spotlight/character-sketches-joseph-mobutu-moise-tshombe-brian-urquhart |website=United Nations |date=13 February 2019 |access-date=24 April 2022 |archive-date=7 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707012527/https://news.un.org/en/spotlight/character-sketches-joseph-mobutu-moise-tshombe-brian-urquhart |url-status=live }}</ref>

Encouraged by a Belgian government intent on maintaining its access to rich Congolese mines, secessionist violence erupted in the south. Concerned that the [[United Nations Operation in the Congo|United Nations force]] sent to help restore order was not helping to crush the secessionists, Lumumba turned to the [[Soviet Union]] for assistance. He received massive military aid and about a thousand Soviet technical advisers within six weeks. As this was during the [[Cold War]], the US government feared that the Soviet activity was a maneuver to spread communist influence in Central Africa. Kasa-Vubu was encouraged by the US and Belgium to dismiss Lumumba, which he did on 5 September. An outraged Lumumba declared Kasa-Vubu deposed. Parliament refused to recognise the dismissals and urged reconciliation, but no agreement was reached.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beyer |first=Greg |title=Patrice Lumumba: Hero & Martyr of the Congo |url=https://www.thecollector.com/patrice-lumumba-congo/ |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=TheCollector |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marcussen |first=Rebecca |date=2025-01-31 |title=A not so secret assassination attempt: Lumumba and the history of the Republic of Congo |url=https://www.debatmagazine.nl/a-not-so-secret-assassination-attempt-lumumba-and-the-history-of-the-republic-of-congo/5315/ |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=DEBAT |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Patrice Émery Lumumba: First Prime Minister of the Congo |url=https://www.blackhistoryheroes.com/2011/02/patrice-lumumba-first-prime-minister-of.html?m=1 |access-date=2025-04-15 |language=en}}</ref>

Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu each ordered Mobutu to arrest the other. As Army Chief of Staff, Mobutu came under great pressure from multiple sources. The embassies of Western nations, which helped pay the soldiers' salaries, as well as Kasa-Vubu and Mobutu's subordinates, all favored getting rid of the Soviet presence. On 14 September Mobutu launched a bloodless coup, declaring both Kasa-Vubu and Lumumba to be "neutralised" and establishing a new government of university graduates, the [[College of Commissioners-General]]. Lumumba rejected this action but was forced to retire to his residence, where UN peacekeepers prevented Mobutu's soldiers from arresting him. Urquhart recalled that on the day of the coup, Mobutu showed up unannounced at the UN headquarters in Léopoldville and refused to leave, until the radio announced the coup, leading Mobutu to say over and over again "''C'est moi!''" ("This is me!").<ref name="Urquhart"/> Recognizing that Mobutu had only gone to the UN headquarters in case the coup should fail, Urquhart ordered him out.<ref name="Urquhart"/>

Losing confidence that the international community would support his reinstatement, Lumumba fled in late November to join his supporters in [[Kisangani|Stanleyville]] to establish a [[Free Republic of the Congo|new government]]. He was captured by Mobutu's troops in early December, and incarcerated at his headquarters in [[Mbanza-Ngungu|Thysville]]. However, Mobutu still considered him a threat, and transferred him to the rebelling [[State of Katanga]] on 17 January 1961. Lumumba disappeared from public view. It was later discovered that he was executed the same day by the secessionist forces of [[Moise Tshombe]], after Mobutu's government turned him over.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schmidt|first1=Elizabeth|title=Foreign Intervention in Africa|publisher=Cambridge UP|pages=62–65}}</ref>

[[File:Mobutu and Kasa-Vubu in 1961.jpg|thumb|Colonel Joseph-Desiré Mobutu (left) with President Joseph Kasa-Vubu, 1961|left]]
On 23 January 1961, Kasa-Vubu promoted Mobutu to major-general. Historian De Witte argues that this was a political action, "aimed to strengthen the army, the president's sole support, and Mobutu's position within the army".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fl2lvKa_GEC|title=The Assassination of Lumumba|last1=De Witte|first1=Ludo|last2=Wright|first2=Ann|publisher=[[Verso Books]]|year=2002|isbn=978-1-85984-410-6|page=127|author-link=Ludo De Witte|access-date=27 September 2020|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111164936/https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fl2lvKa_GEC|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1964, [[Pierre Mulele]] led partisans in another rebellion. They quickly occupied two-thirds of the Congo. In response, the Congolese army, led by Mobutu, reconquered the entire territory through 1965.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mobutu’s Ascension to Power – Innovative Research Methods |url=https://innovativeresearchmethods.org/mobutus-ascension-to-power/ |access-date=2025-04-15 |language=en-US}}</ref>