January 17, 1961 · Katanga (Élisabethville region) Theater
January 17, 1961
Deposed in a constitutional crisis and then in Colonel Mobutu's first coup, Lumumba was placed under UN-guarded house arrest, escaped, was recaptured, and — with the complicity of the United States and Belgium, both of whom feared his Soviet ties — was flown to secessionist Katanga. There he was beaten and shot alongside two aides, and his body dissolved in acid to leave no grave.
Commanders