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Vol 51 No 15

Published 23rd July 2010


Congo-Kinshasa

Katanga makes a comeback

The secessionist movement that almost split the country 50 years ago is again on the march

In the main square of Lubumbashi on 11 July, more than 20 people were arrested while demonstrating for the independence of Katanga. A month earlier, the Place de la Poste had been renamed the Place Moïse Tshombé, in memory of the President of the shortlived secessionist Katanga state, which was suppressed by a United Nations force immediately after Congo was granted its own independence by Belgium in 1960. Tshombé, who held Katanga in 1960-63, died in Algeria in 1969. May’s banned demonstration commemorated the 50th anniversary of his declaration of independence.

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