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Taking Sides? While Dayal's experts fussed noisily about Belgians, they turned a blind eye to a bigger threat to the peace: the gradual southward nibbling of the military patrols of Stanleyville's Antoine Gizenga. Repeatedly in recent weeks visitors warned U.N. headquarters that Gizenga troops had been seen moving toward Luluabourg, capital of Kasai, a strategic junction commanding the only direct route between Kasavubu's Leopoldville and Tshombe's Katanga. "We have no such reports," sniffed a U.N. official.
But great concern echoed at U.N. headquarters over the Congolese central government's 1,600-man force gathered at Bumba by General Joseph Mobutu, apparently poised for an attack on Gizenga's Eastern province. To stop him, new U.N. Military Commander General Sean McKeown flew to Mobutu's bush headquarters, extracted a promise that there would be no invasion. This was highly convenient to the Gizenga regime, for, with Mobutu's immobilization now assured, they were ready for their dash deep into Kasai. The target was Luluabourg, just as the U.N.'s tipsters had been warning. No U.N. soldier raised a hand as Gizenga's 300 men rumbled into the town and took over without a shot from the local troops, who had been thought loyal to Mobutu but who had obviously made a deal with Gizenga instead.
With the occupation of Luluabourg, Gizenga could claim to have split the Congo in half.