Mouvement National Congolais

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The Mouvement National Congolais (English: Congolese National Movement, MNC) is a pro-independence nationalist group that emerged in the colonized Belgian Congo. After the country was granted independence by Belgium and held its first parliamentary elections in 1960, chaotic fighting almost immediately broke out, with the MNC being one of the groups vying for power. Internal splits in the MNC occurred between left-leaning (the United States believed him to get aid from the Soviet Union and being its puppet) future Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and a number of MNC members led by Albert Kalonji. They would break off the form their own more moderate branch of the MNC known as the Mouvement National Congolais-Kalonji, believing Lumbumba and his followers (who as a result of the split became Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba) to be too leftist politically.

Western-allied and Abako leader President Joseph Kasavubu in late 1960 overthrew Lumumba with help from Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Mobutu was a member of the MNC who later would become leader of Congo following the 1965 coup d'état against President Kasavubu.