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In a desperate effort to regain control of the Force Publique, President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba promoted a former regimental sergeant major named Victor Lundula to full general and made him commander of the Congolese army. A Belgian colonel in Léopoldville did what he could to help by going on the radio to order all white officers and noncoms to hand in their weapons, since General Lundula was now in command. The troops, he added, would be allowed to choose the white officers they wanted to stay on as technicians; those they did not like would have to leave the country.
At week's end the Belgian government decided upon armed intervention to rescue and evacuate its citizens in the Congo, who are estimated to number 80,000. Two Belgian officials left Brussels for Léopoldville to put an ultimatum to Lumumba. He was given the choice of inviting Belgian troops to restore order. Should he refuse, the Belgians would intervene on their own initiative. As the Belgian plane took off, the paratroop reservists were assembled at collection points, ready for immediate departure, and army planes warmed up at Belgian airfields to begin the airlift. Either the Congolese government would restore law and order or the Belgian paratroops would do it for them.