1. The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba 1960 to 1961
In 1960, Congo gained independence from Belgium, but this freedom was short lived. Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister, sought true economic independence, aiming to free Congo from Western exploitation. The United States and Belgium viewed this as a threat to their control over Congo’s vast resources.
To destabilise the country, they turned President Joseph Kasavubu against Lumumba, creating a political crisis. Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba on the orders of the West, but Lumumba in turn dismissed Kasavubu in Parliament for treason. This power struggle led to chaos.
With the help of the Central Intelligence Agency and Belgian forces, Lumumba was captured, tortured, and assassinated in January 1961. His body was dissolved in acid to erase evidence of imperialist crimes.
2. Mobutu’s Rise and Western Control 1965 to 1997
After Lumumba’s assassination, Congo remained unstable. In 1965, with direct Central Intelligence Agency support, Mobutu Sese Seko staged a coup and took power.
He ruled as a brutal dictator for over three decades, acting as a puppet for American and Western interests. Mobutu’s primary role was to prevent the spread of socialism in Africa and ensure Congo’s resources remained under Western control.
He became a close ally of Western leaders, helping them install and sustain puppet regimes across Africa, including Yoweri Museveni in Uganda.
3. Mobutu’s Fall and Western Betrayal 1990s
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War ended. Mobutu was no longer useful to Western imperialism.
The same powers that had propped him up for decades abandoned him. The United States ordered its new African proxies, Uganda under Museveni and Rwanda under Paul Kagame, to remove Mobutu.
In 1997, Mobutu fled like a fugitive, finding temporary refuge in Togo before dying in exile in Morocco. No Western country that had once celebrated him offered him asylum or recognised his rule.
4. Laurent Kabila A Short Lived Anti Imperialist 1997 to 2001
Laurent Desire Kabila was installed as Mobutu’s replacement in 1997 with the help of Uganda and Rwanda. However, unlike Mobutu, Kabila sought to restore Congo’s sovereignty.
He expelled Western advisers and distanced himself from his Rwandan and Ugandan backers, angering his former allies. In response, Rwanda and Uganda invaded Congo in 1998, attempting to remove Kabila.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, seeing this as an imperialist attack, sent troops to support Kabila, successfully pushing back the aggressors.
In 2001, Kabila was assassinated under mysterious circumstances, with Western fingerprints all over the plot.
5. Joseph Kabila and the Struggle for Sovereignty 2001 to 2019
After Laurent Kabila’s assassination, his son, Joseph Kabila, took over. Under pressure from the West, he was forced to remove Marxist revolutionaries from his administration.
However, he gradually distanced himself from Western influence, particularly through economic partnerships with China. The West, determined to maintain control over Congo, used Rwandan proxies to infiltrate Congolese institutions through groups like RCD Goma.
Azarias Ruberwa acted as Kagame’s key agent inside Congo’s government. Despite these challenges, Joseph Kabila survived multiple coup attempts and continued resisting foreign control.
6. Félix Tshisekedi and the Current Crisis 2019 to Present
In 2019, Félix Tshisekedi became president without a parliamentary majority. This meant he had to govern in coalition with Joseph Kabila’s political alliance.
His speeches carried a nationalist tone, making him a target of Western imperialism. As in the 1960s, the West, Rwanda, and their Congolese proxies orchestrated a rift between Tshisekedi and Kabila.
They despised Kabila due to his economic ties with China. Using Rwandan and Western agents embedded in Congo’s institutions, they engineered this division to weaken Tshisekedi’s government.
Meanwhile, opposition figures held secret meetings with Western powers, setting the stage for the current war of aggression.
7. The Ongoing War of Imperialist Aggression
Today, Congo is under attack by Rwandan backed M23 rebels, a militia created and funded by Paul Kagame with Western support. This is not a civil war but an imperialist war aimed at looting Congo’s resources.
The West, which profits from Congo’s minerals, continues to back Rwanda’s aggression while presenting itself as a neutral mediator. The same forces that assassinated Lumumba, propped up Mobutu, and betrayed Laurent Kabila are still at work, ensuring that Congo remains a colony of Western capitalism.
8. The Path Forward Pan African Resistance
The only solution to Congo’s crisis is a united Pan African resistance against imperialism. Just as Zimbabwe under Mugabe helped push out Rwandan and Ugandan forces in 1998, African nations must reject Western domination and defend Congo’s sovereignty.
The lesson of history is clear. Western imperialism uses African leaders as puppets, then discards them when they are no longer useful.
Only through African unity and socialist revolution can Congo achieve true independence and end the cycle of imperialist exploitation.
This is the truth behind the current war in Congo. Another chapter in the long struggle against imperialism.
Hands off Congo and Down with their local western puppets.
Booker Omole
General Secretary
Communist Party (Marxist)Kenya