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Twenty-four hours after independence the wild tribesmen commenced fighting each other.

Presently the well-armed members of the Force Publique -- many of them drawn from savage and even cannibalistic tribes, erupted in mutiny, rioting, raping and looting.

Terror engulfed the thousands of Belgian civilians who had remained in the country.

The Belgian government decided to act, and on July 10 dispatched paratroops to the Congo.

On July 11 the head of the mineral-rich province of Katanga, Moise Tshombe, announced that his province had seceded from the country.

Confusion became chaos ; ;

each succeeding day brought new acts of violence.

Lumumba and Kasavubu blamed it all on the military intervention by the Belgians, and appealed to the United Nations to send troops to oust them.