Congo Crisis and Belgian Withdrawal

The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo.^¹ The crisis began almost immediately after the Congo became independent from Belgium and ended, unofficially, with the entire country under the rule of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu.^¹ Constituting a series of civil wars, the Congo Crisis was also a proxy conflict in the Cold War, in which the Soviet Union and the United States supported opposing factions.^¹ Around 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the crisis.^¹