After Congo's freedom hero Patrice Lumumba – the country's first leader after independence from Belgium – was murdered by separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961, his body was dissolved in acid.
Only one tooth remained – kept as a trophy by a Belgian officer.
It wasn't until 2016 that the tooth was seized by Belgian authorities and returned a few years later to the former leader's family. In 2022, it was transported to Congo-Kinshasa, where the tooth was displayed around the country before being placed in a heavily guarded mausoleum built in Lumumba's honor.
In a secret location
On Monday, several people broke into the mausoleum in the capital Kinshasa and destroyed the shrine with the tooth, according to the authorities. What happened to the tooth was unclear – until the interior minister Jacquemain Shabani announced on Thursday that it was safe.
The relic has been secured and is protected, he says in a recorded statement sent to the AFP news agency.
The tooth is now in a secret location, says the grandson Jean-Jacques Lumumba to AP.
Famous speech
Six people have been arrested for the break-in and vandalism. The Culture Department in Kinshasa calls it a "heinous attack aimed at desecrating the burial site".
Patrice Lumumba became an anti-colonial hero icon when he gave a fiery speech against racism on Congo's independence day on June 30, 1960 – a speech that made the Belgian colonial rulers go ballistic.
Lumumba also became the country's first prime minister, but only months later he was overthrown in a coup backed by Belgium and the CIA. He was executed in January 1961, 35 years old, in the southern province of Katanga.
King Leopold II took over the so-called Congo Free State as his private property in 1885 after a conference in Berlin between colonial powers.
About 15 years later, stories about the king's reign of terror in Congo reached Europe, which led to strong pressure on Leopold II and Belgium. Millions of Congolese were killed or died of starvation and disease under his brutal rule. The country was simultaneously plundered of its vast natural resources.
In 1908, the king was forced to hand over his gigantic property in Africa to the Belgian state. The area was then called Belgian Congo.
In 1960, the country became independent under Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
However, Lumumba's government was overthrown in a military coup just two months later, and the prime minister was handed over to political opponents who executed him. Belgian authorities were directly involved in his death.
Several books in the late 1990s sparked self-reflection in Belgium. In 2002, the country officially apologized for its role in Lumumba's death.
The country has also been called Zaire and is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Congo-Kinshasa.
