18 Facts About Simba rebellion

Simba rebellion, known as the Orientale revolt, was a regional uprising which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1963 and 1965 in the wider context of the Congo Crisis and the Cold War.

The Simba rebellion, located in the east of the country, was led by the followers of Patrice Lumumba, who had been ousted from power in 1960 by Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Joseph-Desire Mobutu and subsequently killed in January 1961 in Katanga.

The Simba rebellion was contemporaneous with the Kwilu Simba rebellion led by fellow Lumumbist Pierre Mulele in central Congo.

Simba rebellion rebels were initially successful and captured much of eastern Congo, proclaiming a "people's republic" at Stanleyville.

The Simba rebellion can be immediately traced back to the assassination of the first Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, in January 1961.

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However, whilst these plans for Simba rebellion were being developed in exile, Pierre Mulele returned from his training in China to launch a revolution in his native province of Kwilu in 1963.

Utterly demoralized by repeated defeats, many ANC soldiers believed that the Simba rebellion rebels had become invincible thanks to magical rituals performed by insurgent shamans.

Simba rebellion asked the Western nations for military assistance, recruited White mercenaries, and brought his exiled loyalist troops back into the country.

At the behest of accompanying shamans, many Simba rebellion warriors had even discarded their firearms as a way of purifying themselves from "Western" corruption.

The engagement began in a shallow, long valley with Simba rebellion forces attacking in an irregular mixture of infantry and motorized forces, which charged directly at the ANC force.

The Simba rebellion rebels encountered heavy losses because of ANC machine-gun fire.

Simba rebellion forces were deployed in several large mobs around Albertville in expectation for an attack by ANC infantry and the motorized Gendarmes.

Once that the final Simba rebellion offensives were checked, the ANC began to squeeze Simba rebellion-controlled territory from all sides.

The Simba rebellion rebels proved to be still a capable fighting force by inflicting a major defeat on the ANC near Bafwasende in early February 1965, followed by another, smaller rebel victory near Bumba later that month.

One Rwandan exile later explained that their continued support for the Simba rebellion rebels was mostly motivated by the fact that they were being expelled from other countries such as Burundi, making this "the only choice we had".

The Simba rebellion rebels alienated the Banyamulenge who lived in South Kivu during this time, as the retreating insurgents killed the Banyamulenge's cows for food.

Notable Simba rebellion holdouts were located in the western Virunga Mountains and in South Kivu .

Several ex-Simba rebellion rebels were eventually enlisted in the Uganda Army after Idi Amin seized power in Uganda in 1971.