The ceremony of restitution of the remains of Lumumba once again postponed

Patrice Lumumba in New York in August 1960. He was assassinated six months later in Katanga.

AFP

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The Belgian authorities were to return the remains of Patrice Lumumba to his family this Saturday.

This figure of Congolese independence was executed in January 1961 before his body was dissolved in acid.

A tooth belonging to him was found five years ago in the daughter of a Belgian police officer charged at the time with the disappearance of the body.

This tooth should therefore be returned to his relatives.

But according to our information, this restitution ceremony is postponed.

It had already been rejected for the first time last June. 

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The Belgian authorities are no longer making a secret of it: "

," explains one in the entourage of Alexander de Croo, the Belgian Prime Minister.

"Postponed at the request of the Congolese authorities," it says.

A report confirmed by Juliana Lumumba, the daughter of the former Congolese Prime Minister says she was recently warned by the Belgian embassy in the DRC.

She also said she was somewhat surprised not to have been contacted directly by the Congolese authorities.

“

,” she regrets.

Juliana Lumumba appears all the more bitter as, according to her statements, everything was ready in Belgium for the event.

This restitution ceremony is supposed to be held this Saturday.

From a Congolese source, this new postponement is justified excluding the microphone by the health context and by delays in the DRC in the development of sites planned to host the event.

According to the same source, the restitution ceremony should be postponed until next June.

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• DRC

• Patrice Lumumba

• Belgium