Lusambo () is the capital

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Sankuru Sankuru is one of the 21 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Sankuru, Kasaï-Oriental, and Lomami provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Kasaï-Oriental province. Sankuru ...

province,

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

. The town lies north of the confluence of the

Sankuru River The Sankuru River () is a major river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its approximate length of 1,200 km"Sankuru River" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 10, p. ...

and the

Lubi River Wubi ("Windows-based Ubuntu Installer") is a free software Ubuntu installer, that was the official Windows-based software, from 2008 until 2013, to install Ubuntu from within Windows, to a single file within an existing Windows partition. After ...

. Lusambo is served by

Lusambo Airport Lusambo Airport is an airport serving Lusambo, a town and territory in the Sankuru district of the Kasai-Oriental Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The runway is west of Lusambo and parallels the Sankuru River. See also * * *Transpo ...

. In 1890 Lusambo was chosen by

Paul Le Marinel Paul-Amédée Le Marinel (1858–1912) was an American-born officer in the Belgian army who became an explorer and administrator in the Congo Free State. He was best known for his expedition to Katanga in 1891. Early years Paul-Amédée Le Marine ...

as the main Belgian base in the

Kasai region Kasai or Kasaï may refer to: Places Congo * Congo-Kasaï, one of the four large provinces of Belgian Congo * Kasaï District, in the Kasai-Occidental province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo * Kasai Province, one of the provinces ...

to defend against the Arab or Swahili traders in slaves and ivory who came from the east. The station would soon become one of the most important military posts of the

Congo Free State The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the const ...

with a permanent staff of seventeen whites, six hundred native soldiers and four artillery pieces. In 1999 the new Kabila government and its ally, the Zimbabwean government of

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of th ...

, claimed that U.S. mercenaries were helping Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebel forces who had surrounded 700 Zimbabwean troops near Lusambo during the

Second Congo War The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted ...

References

Sankuru River 1890 establishments in the Congo Free State Populated places in Sankuru Cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{DRCongo-geo-stub