71-561: Alexandre Delcommune (6 October 1855 – 7 August 1922) was a Belgian officer of the armed Force Publique of the Congo Free State who undertook extensive explorations of the country during the early colonial period of the Congo Free State . He explored many of the navigable waterways of the Congo Basin , and led a major expedition to Katanga between 1890 and 1893. Delcommune was born at Namur on 6 October 1855. His father had reached
142-445: A Belgian Army paratroop drop. This violence immediately led to a military intervention into Congo by Belgium in an ostensible effort to secure the safety of its citizens (the earlier Luluabourg intervention had been against orders). The re-entry of these forces was a clear violation of the national sovereignty of the new nation, as it had not requested Belgian assistance. Soon afterwards, after an extraordinary meeting of ministers of
213-480: A colonel whose headquarters was at Stanleyville , grouped F.P. units in Kivu and Orientale Province (PO). It comprised 3 infantry battalions (each of approximately 800 men), seemingly including 6 Battalions at Watsa (under Lieutenant Colonel Merckx in 1960), 2 battalions of Gendarmerie (each of approximately 860 men), a reconnaissance squadron (jeeps, trucks and armoured M8 Greyhound vehicles – approximately 300 men),
284-606: A cyclist company and a battalion headquarters. Lastly, there was the Compagnie d'Artillerie et de Génie (Artillery and Engineers Company) manning Fort de Shinkakasa at the mouth of the Congo River in Boma . The fort contained eight 160mm guns manned by 200 men, plus an equal-sized auxiliary force, which saw little or no service during the war. In 1914, the Force Publique , including
355-595: A dam across the Lualaba to provide hydroelectric power and a water supply to the copper mining operations. Force Publique The Force Publique ( French: [fɔʁs pyblik] , "Public Force"; Dutch : Openbare Weermacht ) was the military of the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo from 1885 to 1960. It was established after Belgian Army officers travelled to the Free State to found an armed force in
426-632: A daughter of the principal chief of Boma. The other Europeans trading on the lower Congo River were furious with what they saw as his deception in gaining the treaties. Despite an Anglo-Portuguese treaty signed in February 1884, he obtained recognition of the Etat Independent du Congo , and this was ratified in the Berlin Conference (1884) in which the territory at the mouth of the Congo was divided between
497-609: A large scale offensive on German East Africa. The allied powers , the British Empire and Belgium, launched a coordinated attack on the German colony; by 1916 the Belgian commander of the Force Publique , Lieutenant-General Charles Tombeur , had assembled an army of 15,000 men supported by local bearers and advanced to Kigali . Kigali was taken by 6 May 1916. The German army stationed in Urundi
568-590: A letter of recommendation to one of his Portuguese friends so that he could go to Brazil or Portugal. After less than six months he arrived in São Paulo de Loanda , modern Luanda. Delcommune travelled from Luanda to Ambriz where he joined the French merchant Lasnier-Daumas, Lartigue et Cie. At that time he was one of just sixteen Europeans living in the Congo, and the only Belgian. He arrived at Boma in 1874. He received Henry Morton Stanley in 1877 during Stanley's crossing of
639-628: A pragmatic education system focused mainly on agriculture, and measures to reduce the price of goods in the colony but to impose minimum prices for native products. Delcommune died in Brussels on 7 August 1922. A Belgian steamer on Lake Tanganyika that fought against the forces of German East Africa during the First World War was named the Alexandre Del Commune. His name was given to the artificial Lake Delcommune , near Kolwezi , formed by
710-517: A route by the south, deviating from the Congo River . He was one of the principal craftsmen of the development and the economic development of the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo . Notably he created the Compagnie du Congo pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (27 December 1886) and many of its subsidiary companies: the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Congo (CCFC), the Compagnie des Magasins généraux,
781-408: A small aviation element including 2 De Havilland DH.104 Doves . Between 1945 and 1960, Belgium continued to organise the Force Publique as an entity cut off from the people that it policed, with recruits serving in tribally mixed units and no more than a quarter of each company coming from the province in which they served. Tightly disciplined and drilled, the Force Publique impressed visitors to
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#1732875830722852-541: A transport company, a military police company (approximately 100 men), a heavy mortar platoon, a combat engineer company and a training centre at Lokandu. Vanderstraeten reported the dispositions of the Force Publique in July 1960 as: Total strength of the Force Publique immediately prior to independence was 22,403 Congolese regular soldiers and NCOs, 599 European NCOs, and 444 European officers. The last 15 commanders of
923-564: A year. Delcommune founded the posts of Nioki , Tolo and Dekese among others in the Mai Ndombe District . During this trip he settled an outstanding geographical question when he determined that the Lomani was indeed a tributary of the Congo as Stanley had suspected. He also found that Nyangwe , an important slave-trading center on the Lualaba River , was just three days journey east of
994-645: The Belgian Congo with its smart appearance, but a culture of separateness, encouraged by its Belgian officers, led to brutal and unrestrained behaviour when the external restraints of colonial administration were lifted in 1960. The infamous chicote was abolished in only 1955. The Belgian Government made no effort to train Congolese commissioned officers until the very end of the Colonial period, and there were only about 20 African officer cadets at military schools in Belgium on
1065-522: The British South Africa Company "I want you to get Msiri's. I mean Katanga... You must go and get Katanga". A small force of Belgians from an expedition led by Paul Le Marinel had been allowed to establish a post near to Msiri's capital early in 1891. Delcommune's expedition was primarily concerned with finding gold, and secondarily with settling the country. Delcommune was to try to make Msiri accept Belgian rule, and then go south to where
1136-695: The Congo Free State as his private colony , ordered the Belgian Secretary of the Interior to create a military for the Free State. Soon afterwards, in early 1886, Captain Léon Roger (of the Belgian Army 's Regiment of Carabiniers ) was sent to the Congo with orders to establish the force. A few months later, on 17 August, he was promoted to "Commandant of the Force Publique". A number of other Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers were also dispatched to
1207-703: The FP mobile units consisted of 6 battalions of infantry (the V battalion at Stanleyville , the VI battalion at Watsa , the VIII battalion at Luluabourg, the XI battalion at Rumangabo , the XII battalion at Elizabethville , and the XIII battalion at Léopoldville ), 3 reconnaissance units, military police units, a brigade under training at Camp Hardy, still under construction at Thysville , 4 coastal defence guns, and
1278-465: The FP to African soldiers in a mess hall at the main base outside Léopoldville, in which he stated that Independence would not bring any change in their status or role. Lieutenant General Émile Janssens 's intention may only have been to stress the need for continued discipline and obedience to orders, but the impact on the soldiers, unsettled by the demands of maintaining order during Independence celebrations and fearful that they would be excluded from
1349-407: The Force Publique eventually grew to over 600 men each. Their constituent units, known as detachments, were so widely scattered that the force had no real military value. Rather the bulk of these sub-units consisted of small garrisons in fixed locations, with local policing functions. It was intended that each administrative company form a Compagnie Marche of 150 men. Each Marche or field company
1420-491: The Force Publique into two branches. The troupes campées was tasked with guarding the border and protecting the colony from external aggression, while the troupes en service territoriale was responsible for maintaining internal security. Battalions from the latter were assigned to every provincial capital, while companies were stationed at each district headquarters. After Belgium had surrendered to Nazi Germany on 28 May 1940, Governor-General Pierre Ryckmans decided that
1491-466: The Force Publique suffered from institutional problems. During the early years of the force, mutinies of black soldiers occurred several times. By the early 1890s, much of the eastern portion of the Free State was under the control of Arab ivory and slave traders (though the Government was able to re-establish control over the east by the mid-1890s). Organizational problems were also quite prevalent during
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#17328758307221562-555: The Force Publique was described as an "exceptionally brutal army". One major purpose of the Force was to enforce the rubber quotas and other forms of forced labour. Armed with modern weapons and the chicote —a bull whip made of hippopotamus hide—soldiers of the FP often took and mistreated hostages. Reports from foreign missionaries and consular officials detail a number of instances where Congolese men and women were flogged or raped by soldiers of
1633-466: The Force Publique were: On 5 July 1960, five days after the country gained independence from Belgium, the Force Publique garrison in Léopoldville mutinied against its white officers (who had remained in complete command) and attacked numerous European and Congolese targets. The immediate incident sparking the mutiny was reported to have been a tactless speech made by the Belgian general commanding
1704-518: The Sudan to Cairo . Between 1942 and 1943, an expeditionary force of 13,000 was sent to Nigeria. Nine thousand of these troops served in Egypt and Palestine . They returned to the Belgian Congo at the end of 1944 without having seen active service. The Force Publique also sent the 10th Belgian Congo Casualty Clearing Station to the battle zone. Between 1941 and 1945, some 350 Congolese and 20 Belgians, under
1775-512: The 1890s, the Force Publique defeated the African and Arab slavers in the course of the Congo Arab war (1892–1894), which resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. As time went on, the Force Publique began to increasingly recruit and to rely on Belgian officers and native Congolese soldiers, so that the white and black foreign mercenaries had been mostly phased out by 1908. Under Leopold II
1846-764: The Arab fort the Belgians were beaten off. Out of the 650 men that left on Delcommune's expedition, 543 had lost their lives by the time it ended in February 1893. After the Katanga expedition Delcommune assumed an important role in the CCCI group of companies. He returned to Europe in 1895, where he was offered a position as Inspector of the Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium . Delcommune refused, not wanting to spend more time in Africa. In his memoirs, written much later, he said that he disagreed with
1917-559: The Belgian Army), mercenaries and former officers from the armies of other European nations, especially those of Scandinavia, Italy and Switzerland. To these men, service in the Congo Free State offered military experience, adventure and—as they saw it—an opportunity to participate in a humanitarian endeavour. From 1885 to 1908 the officer corps consisted of hundreds of Belgians and dozens of Scandinavians, with smaller numbers recruited from other nations. Serving under these European officers
1988-558: The Belgian base at Kamina . On 23 August they were transferred to Elizabethville , and on 26 August officially turned over to the secessionist State of Katanga . Albert Thys Albert Thys (28 November 1849 – 10 February 1915) was a Belgian businessman who was active in the Congo Free State . He gave his name of Thysville to the station of Sona Qongo, currently Mbanza-Ngungu in Bas-Congo . Born in Dalhem , Thys graduated at
2059-412: The Force Publique, unrestrained by their officers and NCOs . They burned villages they viewed as recalcitrant. There is evidence, including photographs, that FP soldiers cut off human hands, either as trophies, or to show that bullets had not been wasted, or (by cutting off the limbs of children) to punish parents viewed as not working hard enough in the rubber plantations. During the Free State period,
2130-420: The Free State era. With many Force Publique detachments being stationed in remote areas of the territory, some officers took to using soldiers under their control to further private economic agendas rather than focusing on military concerns. By the end of 1891, the force had 60 officers, 60 non-commissioned officers, and 3,500 black soldiers. Friendly tribes and militias were often used to help exert control over
2201-613: The Italian troops surrendered to General Auguste-Édouard Gilliaert on 7 July 1941, and included nine generals, among them General Pietro Gazzera and Count Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi , 370 officers, and 2,574 NCOs and 1,533 native soldiers. About 2,000 additional native irregulars were sent home. The Force Publique lost about 500 men during the East Africa Campaign, among them 4 Belgians. The Force Publique then helped to establish an overland route from Lagos through Fort Lamy and
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2272-594: The Katanga companies, totalled about 17,000 askaris with 178 white officers and 235 white NCOs. The majority served in small static garrisons called poste with primarily a police role. With the outbreak of the First World War , the Katangese units were organised in battalions (Ie, IIe, and IIIme) for military service in Northern Rhodesia and the eastern frontier districts of the Belgian Congo . The Force Publique
2343-687: The Lomami. His ascent of the Lomani, which he found to be easy to navigate, took seventeen days and covered over 570 miles (920 km) to around latitude 4° South. Running parallel to the Congo, which it enters below the barrier of the Stanley Falls , it reaches far to the south. This discovery opened an important route into the interior. Albert Thys founded the Compagnie Congolaise pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (CCCI) in 1887. King Leopold granted him extensive trading privileges since his enterprise
2414-644: The Nyamwezi trader Msiri had seized power around 1860, expanding his empire to cover a large part of the Luapula valley. By the time of Delcommune's expedition his rule had greatly contracted, but both the Belgians in the free State and the British in Southern Africa were determined to fully control the mineral-rich area of Katanga . Msiri refused to make any formal treaty with either power. Cecil Rhodes had told an agent of
2485-469: The Portuguese, French and Belgians. In 1886 Delcommune was given a commission by Albert Thys to study whether a planned railway would be profitable. This involved exploring the whole navigable part of the Congo basin, determining what types and quantities of merchandise could be expected, and assessing whether this would justify the investment. For this mission he organized the transport of the components of
2556-669: The atomic bomb for Hiroshima . The military contribution was also important: the Force Publique grew to 40,000 in the course of the War, formed into three brigades, a river force and support units. It provided detachments to fight Italian forces during the East Africa campaign and serve as garrisons in West Africa and the Middle East. At the end of 1940, the XI Battalion of the Force Publique
2627-433: The battlefield, winning the respect of their British and Portuguese allies, as well as that of their German opponents. From 1916 onwards, the Force Publique grew to reach a strength of three mobile Groupes (brigades), Kivu, Ruzizi, and Tanganyika , comprising a total of 15 battalions, from the static garrison and police force of 1914. However, it did take until late 1915 for the Force Publique to finish preparations for
2698-462: The benefits of the new freedom, was disastrous. The outbreak caused fear amongst the approximately 100,000 Belgian and other European civilians and officials still resident in the Congo and ruined the credibility of the new government as it proved unable to control its own armed forces. For example, the white community in Luluabourg was besieged in improvised fortifications for three days until rescued by
2769-869: The blue uniform (with red trim around the neck and down the front opening), red fez and sash of the askaris was phased out in a series of changes during 1915–1917. Thereafter, officers and askaris wore a variety of khaki uniforms. The Force Publique was organised into 21 separate companies (originally numbered but later known only by their names) each between 225 and 950 men strong, along with an artillery and an engineers unit. The entire force numbered over 12,100 men. The companies were as follows: Aruwimi, Bangala, Bas-Congo , Cateracts, Équateur , Ituri , Kasai , Kwango , Lac Léopold II , Lualaba , Lulongo, Makrakas, Makua-Bomokandi, Ponthiérville , Rubi, Ruzizi - Kivu , Stanley Falls , Stanley Pool , Ubangi , and Uele-Bili. There were also six recruit training camps containing over 2,400 men. The separate companies comprising
2840-698: The brutal techniques being used in developing the rubber economy. He did return to the Congo the same year as an inspector of the SAB. He continued to travel, visiting Brazil and the Dutch and British colonies in Asia. He also became part owner with Albert Thys of a cocoa plantation in São Tomé . During the First World War Delcommune was the author of a sharp attack on the colonial administration. He called for improved sanitation,
2911-496: The colony on Leopold II of Belgium 's orders. The Force Publique was heavily involved in atrocities in the Congo Free State , and also saw action in the Congo Arab war , World War I and World War II . It was renamed to the Congolese National Army in July 1960 after Congo gained independence from Belgian colonial rule. The Force Publique was initially conceived in 1885 when Leopold II of Belgium , who established
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2982-682: The colony would continue to fight on the side of the Allies. With Belgium occupied, the contribution to the Allied cause by the Free Belgian forces from the Belgian Congo was primarily an economic one providing copper, wolfram, zinc, tin, rubber, cotton and more. Already prior to the war uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine had been shipped to New York; it was later used in the Manhattan Project to produce
3053-589: The command of Medical Colonel Thomas, worked together with the British medical services in Abyssinia, Somaliland , Madagascar and Burma. They especially proved their value serving with the Indian XXXIII Corps on the Upper Chindwin , where they were attached to the 11th (East Africa) Division . During the confusion inherent in jungle fighting, the Belgian medical unit found itself on one occasion in advance of
3124-556: The constitution of the Congo Free State. After arriving in Congo in 1887 he promoted the Matadi-Léopoldville Railway , which was built from 1890 to 1898. The living conditions in the construction of this railway were miserable. The sanitary and medical facilities were insufficient. In 1892, about two thousand people worked on the railroad, of which an average of one hundred and fifty workers per month lost their lives due to smallpox , dysentery , beriberi and exhaustion. By
3195-607: The continent from east to west. In 1883 Delcommune joined the Association Internationale Africaine . A year later he was appointed director of the Belgian factories in Boma and Noki , and became head of the future capital of the Congo Free State at Boma. He was tasked with getting the local chiefs to accept Belgian sovereignty, and on 19 April 1884 three important agreements were signed. Delcommune had succeeded due to his long familiarity with Boma and to having married
3266-424: The cost of the colonial army low. As result, the proportion of commissioned Belgian officers to askaris (about one to a hundred) was very low by the standards of most colonial armies of this period. The weaponry of the Force Publique also remained mostly outdated due to the tight budgetary constraints on the colonial administration. Most askaris were armed with single shot 11 mm Albini-Braendlin rifles , though
3337-503: The end of 1892, 7,000 workers had already been recruited, 3,500 of whom had died or fled (for example, to neighboring forests). These conditions made it more difficult to recruit workers. Thys therefore attracted people from Barbados and China in September and November 1892 respectively. The Barbadians refused to leave the boats in the port of Matadi until they were forced by firearms. Seven people lost their lives in this action. He imposed
3408-681: The eve of Independence. A separate gendarmerie was organised in 1959 drawn from the Territorial Service Troops of the FP . By July 1959, a total of 40 companies and 28 platoons of gendarmerie were either formed or in training. In 1960, the Force Publique comprised 3 groupements (Groups) each of which covered two provinces. The 1st groupement had its headquarters at Elisabethville in Katanga Province, according to Louis-Francois Vanderstraeten. The 2nd groupement covered Léopoldville and Equateur . The 3rd groupement, commanded by
3479-452: The following unarmed aircraft and helicopters were used by Avimil: At independence on 30 June 1960, Avimil was placed under the control of the new government of the Republic of the Congo , and continued its missions until 20 July 1960. On this date the chief of Belgian forces in the Congo ordered the assembly of non-Congolese personnel and operational aircraft ('des appareils en état de vol') at
3550-451: The force was a de Havilland DH.85 Leopard Moth that entered service on 9 October 1940. For the remainder of the period of Belgium's rule, the Force Publique continued its joint military and police role, split into territorial units, charged with maintaining public order, and mobile units (between the wars known as unites campees ) charged with territorial defence. There was a mutiny by the XIV battalion at Luluabourg in 1944. In 1945,
3621-446: The front line troops. This incident was later used by British officers to motivate the fighting troops to greater efforts ("even a hospital can do better"). At the end of 1940, the FP headquarters, recognising the need for aviation support for the force, began forming the Aviation militaire de la Force Publique equipped with requisitioned civilian machines and based at N'Dolo Airport in Leopoldville. The first machine purchased for
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#17328758307223692-422: The geologist Diderrich, the naturalist Protche, doctor Briard, Baron de Roest d'Alkemade and Count Soutchoff. Delcommune was charged with exploring the region and examining its local wealth and the problems of transport and communications. The expedition left Kinshasa on 17 October 1890 on two steamers. Ville de Bruxelles was provided by the state and Florida was provided by the Haut Congo Society. In Katanga,
3763-445: The gold fields were thought to be. His chosen route up the Lualaba from Bena-Kamba turned out to be extremely difficult, with many rapids to be negotiated. On 3 May 1891 the expedition reached N'Gongo-Lutita . There they met Rachid, the nephew and successor of Tippoo-Tib , who lent them porters. Delcommune went on by land, making treaties with the local chiefs as he went. Delcommune's expedition reached Bunkeya in October 1891, but he
3834-482: The new Congolese Government at Camp Leopold on 8 July, the FP was renamed as the Congolese National Army ( Armée Nationale Congolaise ( ANC )), and its leadership was Africanised. The chain of events this started eventually resulted in Joseph Mobutu ( Mobutu Sésé Seko ), a former Sergeant-Major in the FP who had been promoted to Chief of Staff of the ANC by Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba , gaining power and establishing his dictatorial kleptocracy . His regime
3905-420: The outermost parts of the Free State. By 1900, the Force Publique numbered 19,000 men. Following the takeover of the Free State by the Belgian government in 1908, the new authorities reorganised the Force Publique . This process was rather slow, however, and was only completed during the First World War . Though the new Belgian administration was "more enlightened" than its predecessor, it still tried to keep
3976-438: The rank of sergeant major in the engineer corps before retiring and joining the Belgian and French railways. Alexandre Delcommune studied at the Athenaeum in Brussels, then worked for three months as a clerk in the Brussels North railway station before quitting due to boredom. He traveled to Portugal in January 1874 to work for his half brother, the director of a French olive oil factory. Still restless, he got his brother to write
4047-485: The sovereignty of Leopold II over his territory. Msiri again refused and fled to a nearby village where he was killed by members of Stairs' force. Resistance ceased and Katanga came under Belgian rule. In August 1892, Delcommune's expedition was returning north by way of Lake Tanganyika , where he came to the assistance of a group of missionaries from the London Missionary Society at Albertville who were threatened by Arab slavers. However, in an attempt to gain control of
4118-463: The steamer Le Roi des Belges overland to Leopoldville, where the boat was assembled. The journey took four months, with another five months to assemble the steamer and launch it. He then explored the Kasai , the Fimi , the Sankuru , Lake Leopold II , the Lubefu , the Kwango and the Kwilu . He went as far up the Congo as Stanley Falls , ascended the Lomami and explored the Aruwimi . He covered 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi) of water routes in
4189-425: The territory as the nucleus of the officer corps. The officers of the Force Publique were entirely European. They comprised a mixture of Belgian regular soldiers and mercenaries from other countries who were drawn by the prospect of wealth or simply attracted to the adventure of service in Africa. To command his Force Publique , Leopold II was able to rely on a mixture of volunteers (regular officers detached from
4260-398: The war their actions were supported by more than 260,000 local bearers. In 1916, Tombeur was made Military Governor of the Belgian Occupied East African Territories. After the Mahenge offensive and the capture of Mahenge in 1917, the Belgian Congolese army controlled roughly one-third of German East Africa. After the First World War , as outlined in the Treaty of Versailles , Germany
4331-401: The white cadres and units in Katanga were given better Mauser Model 1889 rifles. Other weapons included Maxim machine guns , smaller numbers of Madsen machine guns , Nordenfelt 4.7 cm and Krupp 7.5 cm cannons. The uniforms of the old Free State remained in use among the Force Publique until the First World War : Belgian officers wore white uniforms until late 1914, while
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#17328758307224402-406: The École de guerre, before entering into the service of king Leopold II of Belgium in 1876, as secretary of the colonial businesses. After the return of Henry Morton Stanley , the king sent Thys to England to propose a new expedition to Central Africa on behalf of the Association Internationale Africaine . Thys was actively involved in the organisation of the first expeditions which would lead to
4473-424: Was able to assemble another battalion from smaller units; originally called the IIIe, but changed to the 11e to avoid confusion with the Katanga IIIme battalion. During the First World War (1914–18), an expanded Force Publique served against German colonial forces in Kamerun and German East Africa ( Tanzania , Rwanda , Burundi ), as part of the East African campaign . The Force Publique performed well on
4544-425: Was an ethnically-mixed African soldiery, who eventually became comparable to the askaris fielded by other European colonial powers. Many were recruited or conscripted from “warrior tribes” in the Haut-Congo , others were mercenaries drawn from Zanzibar and West Africa ( Nigerian Hausas ). The role required of the Force Publique was that of both defending Free State territory and of internal pacification. In
4615-405: Was forced to cede "control" of the Western section of the former German East Africa to Belgium. On 20 October 1924, Ruanda-Urundi (1924–1945), which consisted of modern-day Rwanda and Burundi , became a League of Nations mandate territory under Belgian administration, with Usumbura as its capital. On 10 May 1919, the Belgian colonial administration issued a decree formally reorganising
4686-441: Was forced to retreat by the numerical superiority of the Belgian army, and by 17 June 1916, Ruanda-Urundi was occupied. The Force Publique and the British Lake Force then started a thrust to capture Tabora , an administrative centre of central German East Africa. The army went on to take Tabora on 19 September after heavy fighting. At the time of the Battle of Tabora in September 1916, about 25,000 men were under arms; during
4757-419: Was intended to have four Belgian officers and NCOs plus between 100 and 150 askaris. In principle, companies comprised two or three 50-man platoons. There were supposed to be enough companies to form three Marche battalions. Eight Congolese soldiers were promoted to NCO. The 2,875 men of the Troupes du Katanga constituted a semi-autonomous force of six companies: four de marche and two other infantry, plus
4828-412: Was placed at the disposal of the British forces in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . The 3rd Brigade of the Force Publique , together with the XI battalion (5,700 men), took part in the campaign in Abyssinia in Italian East Africa , arriving from the Congo via the Sudan. The troops took Asosa and Gambela with little resistance, and shelled Italian forces at Saïo on 8 June 1941. Their retreat cut off ,
4899-447: Was seen as a bastion against British interests. When Delcommune returned to Brussels in 1889, he was given charge of a CCCI expedition to Katanga (1890–1893). The " Compagnie du Katanga " formed for the expedition was theoretically a private organization, but in practice was an instrument of the Congo Free State. Preparation for the expedition began in May 1890, and the expedition left Matadi in September of that year. With Delcommune were
4970-399: Was to remain in power until May 1997. Prior to independence, the air component of the Force Publique (Avi / or Avimil, Aviation militaire de la Force publique ) was based mainly at the N'Dolo airport, Leopoldville. Avimil's roles included the transportation of passengers, medical supplies and other goods, as well as undertaking connecting flights and recognition duties. Between 1944 and 1960
5041-471: Was unable to persuade Msiri to accept Belgian rule and continued south. In December 1891 a larger expedition arrived at Bunkeya from Zanzibar . At the age of 25 the Canadian-born engineer, soldier and mercenary William Grant Stairs had been second in command of Henry Morton Stanley's 1887 expedition to relieve Emin Pasha in Equatoria . In 1891 he was commissioned to lead an expedition to Bunkeya to obtain Msiri's submission. Stairs demanded that Msiri accept
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