{"id":38412,"date":"2026-06-30T12:09:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38412"},"modified":"2026-06-30T12:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:09:48","slug":"drc-marks-66-years-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/drc-marks-66-years-of-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC marks 66 years of independence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today marks Independence day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The country commemorates its liberation from Belgian colonial rule.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Patrice Lumumba became the DRC&#8217;s first elected Prime Minister after the nation&#8217;s independence from Belgian colonisers on June 30, 1960.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">He was assassinated a few months into his role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Sixty-six years after gaining sovereignty DRC faces a catastrophic humanitarian crisis as a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak directly collides with the escalating conflict in the eastern region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The epidemic has killed over 300 people, and the conflict has displaced millions and claimed thousands of lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Channel Africa&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12548,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-38412","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"DRC today marks Independence day","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38413,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38412\/revisions\/38413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}