Simba rebellion

Simba rebellion
Part of the Congo Crisis and the Cold War
Simba rebellion (red) and Kwilu rebellion (yellow)
Date 1963 – November 1965 (Simba holdouts continue resistance until 1996) Location Democratic Republic of the Congo, with spillovers into Uganda and Sudan Result Government victory • Rebellion suppressed
Belligerents
Democratic Republic of the Congoa.  Belgium  United States Anyanya Banyamulenge militias (1965)[1]	Simba rebels Gbenye-Olenga faction Soumialot faction Kabila-Massengo faction Rwandan exile groups[2]  Uganda[3] Sudan[4] Foreign support  Soviet Union  Cuba  Tanganyikab  China[5]  Burundi  Egypt[6]  Algeria[7]
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Kasa-Vubu Cyrille Adoula Moïse Tshombe Louis Bobozo Frédéric Vandewalle[a] Joseph-Desiré Mobutu Charles Laurent Robert D. Forman Joseph Lagu[9]	Christophe Gbenye Nicholas Olenga Gaston Soumialot Laurent-Désiré Kabila Ildéphonse Massengo Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa
Strength
Congo-Léopoldville: ~29,000 ANC[10] Belgium: 350 paratroopers United States: 128 commandos 200 Cuban dissidents[11] 5 C-130 transport aircraft	Unknown Simba rebels Thousands Rwandans[2] 200 Cuban and Soviet advisors
Casualties and losses
Large civilian casualties, including 392 Europeans and at minimum 20,000 Africans executed by rebels. Tens of thousands killed in total during suppression of the rebellion.[12]
a. The Republic of the Congo became the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1964. b. Tanganyika became Tanzania in April 1964 following its incorporation of Zanzibar.

The Simba rebellion, also known as the Orientale revolt,^[13] 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 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-Désiré Mobutu and subsequently killed in January 1961 in Katanga. The rebellion was contemporaneous with the Kwilu rebellion led by fellow Lumumbist Pierre Mulele in central Congo.

The Simba rebels were initially successful and captured much of eastern Congo, proclaiming a "people's republic" at Stanleyville. However, the insurgency suffered from a lack of organization and coherence, as well as tensions between the rebel leadership and its international allies of the Eastern Bloc. When the Congolese government launched a number of major counter-offensives from late 1964, spearheaded by battle-hardened mercenaries and backed by Western powers, the rebels suffered several major defeats and disintegrated. By November 1965, the Simba rebellion was effectively defeated, though holdouts of the rebels continued their insurgency until the 1990s.

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