# Canonical recap data for Congo Crisis and Belgian Withdrawal (1960)
# Source: https://recap.at/1960/congo-crisis
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: congo-crisis
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1960/congo-crisis"
title: Congo Crisis and Belgian Withdrawal
subtitle: Belgian Congo's abrupt independence devolved into civil war, Cold War intervention, and Lumumba's assassination—a defining post-colonial tragedy.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1960-06-01
datePrecision: month
year: 1960
decade: 1960
country:
name: Democratic Republic of the Congo
slug: democratic-republic-congo
summaryShort: The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo. 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. Constituting a series of civil
summaryLong: The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo. 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. 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. Around 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the crisis.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/UN_Baluba_camp.jpg/1280px-UN_Baluba_camp.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Congo Crisis"
importance: 80
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis"
  title: Congo Crisis
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- war
- revolution
metaDescription: The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo. The crisis began almost immediately after t
wikidataQid: Q1773926
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260629125025/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-29
  label: Congo Crisis
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis"
