1,000 Europeans Faced Evacuation as Mobutu Planned Strike on Lumumba
By Theo Marchetti ·
Patrice Lumumba was hunted as a ghost in his own country while redacted sources tracked his disturbed personal condition and an unidentified shipment moved toward Stanleyville.
Patrice Lumumba spent late November 1960 as a ghost in his own country, hunted by the men who once served him. The cost of his flight was measured in the beatings of foreigners and the looming shadow of a full-scale civil war.
According to a National Security Council briefing dated November 30, 1960, and published in the Foreign Relations of the United States (State Dept) volume on the Congo, Lumumba had been planning an escape from Leopoldville since early November. He was moving toward Stanleyville in the Orientale Province, a region where his influence remained potent despite the rising power of Joseph Mobutu.
"Disturbed Personal Condition"
The document paints a picture of a man in collapse. An unnamed source—whose identity is hidden by a redaction that reads "[less than 1 line not declassified]"—reported on November 28 that he had not seen Lumumba for a week and had not aided in his escape. This same source described Lumumba as being in a "disturbed personal condition."
It was a characterization typical of the era's intelligence summaries, often used to undermine the political agency of revolutionary leaders. The briefing notes that Lumumba allegedly blamed his prolonged stay in Leopoldville on the "Afro-Asians." As he fled, the record indicates that most of his followers fled with him, leaving a vacuum in the capital that Mobutu was more than happy to fill.
Public records identify Lumumba as the first prime minister of the First Congolese Republic and the leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC). A pan-Africanist who had pushed for the transformation of the Congo from a Belgian colony into a truly independent republic, Lumumba found himself by late 1960 stripped of formal power but not of his ambitions. The NSC briefing confirms that Lumumba viewed the Orientale Province not merely as a refuge, but as a base of operations. He recently observed that a "liberation movement in Congo could be launched from there."
Stanleyville
By mid-October 1960, Lumumba's forces had seized control of the Orientale Province, though the briefing admits there was some opposition from army elements loyal to Mobutu. This friction turned violent on November 28, when Lumumba's partisans in Stanleyville launched "sweeping arrests of Europeans," including personnel from the United Nations.
The record notes that while most of these prisoners were eventually released, "many beaten." The situation grew desperate enough that the UN representative in Stanleyville requested an emergency air evacuation for 1,000 Europeans on November 29. That request was dropped a day later when the UN reported the city was "quiet."
Amidst this chaos, the local Congolese district commissioner in Stanleyville issued a directive to all police posts in the province: any European who expressed "anti-Lumumba sentiments" was to be expelled. This was the reality of the "liberation movement" on the ground—a volatile mix of anti-colonial fervor and targeted reprisals against the remnants of the Belgian influence.
Will Mobutu Attack?
While Lumumba sought to consolidate his position in the east, the United States was tracking the geopolitical machinery supporting him. The briefing explicitly mentions that Lumumba's agents, the United Arab Republic (UAR), and the Soviet Bloc continued to be "active in support of this goal."
One particularly opaque detail involves an emissary of Lumumba who, in mid-November, contacted a redacted source concerning the delivery of an "unidentified shipment." This shipment was intended to transit through the UAR and Sudan, presumably destined for the Orientale Province. The nature of the cargo—whether arms, funds, or communications equipment—remains a gap in the record.
The briefing concludes with a stark assessment of the military stakes. The U.S. government was aware that should Lumumba arrive safely in Stanleyville, where his following was well established, a "new phase of power struggle in Congo would begin."
The document records that on November 29, Mobutu's commissioners decided to mount military operations against Lumumba's forces in Stanleyville. The briefing describes this as the "most difficult" option. The warning is explicit: if the United Nations were unable to prevent such an action, the result would be "civil war."
The record of this briefing ends there, originating from Central Intelligence Agency Files, Job 79R00890A, Box 13, Folder 2. It leaves the immediate outcome of Mobutu's planned operation unstated, though history records that Lumumba would not survive the year.