Congolese false alarm after mausoleum vandalised

The gold-capped enamel of Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s independence hero, is secure and has no longer been stolen, his daughter has advised the BBC.

The inside track comes as a reduction to a country gripped via worry that the one stays of the rustic’s respected first high minister were swiped after his mausoleum within the capital, Kinshasa, used to be vandalised on Monday evening.

However Juliana Lumumba mentioned earlier considerations in regards to the safety of the website online had triggered the circle of relatives to transport the enamel to a extra safe location.

The enamel used to be best returned to the Lumumba circle of relatives via former colonial energy Belgium two years in the past – and were positioned within the particular memorial construction.

Lumumba used to be a lot beloved no longer simply by many at house however throughout Africa for his outspoken grievance of colonialism – and he become an icon of pan-Africanism.

He used to be noticed as a logo of trade and hope after the harrowing years beneath Belgian rule, all over which hundreds of thousands of Congolese other people died or have been brutalised.

However inside of months of the rustic’s independence from Belgium in 1960 he used to be toppled as high minister.

On the age of 35 he used to be shot via a firing squad in January 1961, with the tacit backing of Belgium.

His frame used to be then dissolved in acid, however Belgian police officer Gerard Soete, who oversaw the destruction, took the enamel as a macabre souvenir.

The go back of Lumumba’s gold enamel in June 2022 used to be a motive for birthday celebration in DR Congo – and it used to be taken on a excursion of the huge nation so other people may pay their respects.

The vandalism of the mausoleum has brought about outrage – and when Tradition Minister Yolande Elebe Mandembo introduced on Tuesday that an investigation were introduced, many feared the worst.

Pictures circulated appearing {that a} glass door were smashed to get get right of entry to to the chamber the place a coffin may well be noticed.

However Ms Lumumba sought to reassure other people on Wednesday – pronouncing her father’s enamel had no longer been there on the time of the break-in.

However she advised the BBC she felt “anger and disappointment” that her father’s grave were disrespected.

Now 69, she spent years lobbying Belgium for the go back of the enamel.

“Patrice Lumumba sacrificed himself for the sovereignty and independence of his nation and the Congolese,” she mentioned.

“That is so unrepresentative of our tradition, which respects the graves of our dearly departed.”

Native government say 4 suspects were arrested over the desecration, however their identities have no longer been made public.

Ms Lumumba mentioned the Lumumba Basis sought after to take over control of the mausoleum as a result of safety worries and were lobbying the federal government to take action.