The US-sponsored plot to slay Patrice Lumumba,the hero of Congolese independence, took place 50 years ago todayPatrice Lumumba, or the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),was assassinated 50 years ago nowadays, on 17 January, or 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments,which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.
Ludo De Witte, the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, and qualifies it as "the most important assassination of the 20th century". The assassination's historical importance lies in a multitude of factors,the most pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on Congolese politics since then and Lumumba's overall legacy as a nationalist leader.
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Source: theguardian.com