Stanleyville mutinies
The Stanleyville mutinies, also known as the Mercenaries' mutinies, occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1966 and 1967.
First mutiny
Amid rumours that the ousted prime minister Moïse Tshombe was plotting a comeback from his exile in Spain, some 2,000 of Tshombe's former Katangan gendarmes, led by mercenaries, mutinied in Kisangani in July 1966. Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph-Damien Tshatshi, the local military commander, was executed. The mutiny was unsuccessful and was crushed.Second mutiny
Exactly a year after the failure of the first mutiny, another broke out, again in Kisangani, apparently triggered by the news that Tshombe's airplane had been hijacked over the Mediterranean and forced to land in Algiers, where he was held prisoner. Led by a Belgian settler/mercenary named Jean Schramme with fellow mercenaries Bob Denard and Jerry Puren and involving approximately 100 former Katangan gendarmes and about 1,000 Katangese, the mutineers held their ground against the 32,000-man Armée Nationale Congolaise for four months until November 1967, when Schramme and his mercenaries crossed the border into Rwanda and surrendered to the local authorities.On 4 November 1967, the ANC launched an all-out assault on the mercenaries' positions in Bukavu. After a day of fighting, Schramme, his mercenaries and the Katangans retreated towards the bridge crossing into Rwanda. The next morning the rearguard crossed the bridge. Schramme and his followers were disarmed and interned by the Rwandan authorities.