THE PORT FRANCQUI MASSACRE

“Good Sergeant Major, run away!” These words were spoken by British Captain Trevor Ralph just seconds before he was shot dead by Congolese soldiers who had mutinied against the Congolese National Army (ANC). He shouted them to Swedish Sergeant Egon Åberg, who suddenly broke away from his guards and plunged into the dense vegetation, right beside the path where Swedish Sergeant Lars Liedgren had just been executed. It is thanks to Sergeant Egon Åberg’s successful escape that we know today what happened during the events that later became known as the Port Francqui Massacre.

In late April 1961, a Ghanaian UN contingent commanded by three British officers was stationed in the Congolese town of Port Francqui. Three Swedish officers were also present, along with a Polish doctor and a British doctor.

The Ghanaian troops had fortified a hotel situated close to the barracks where the mutinous ANC soldiers were based.

The situation was extremely tense, and following a series of somewhat unclear events, the ANC soldiers threatened to storm the hotel unless the Ghanaian troops handed over the British and Swedish officers.

The Ghanaian soldiers complied, and on the afternoon of 27 April, the Swedes and Britons were escorted out of the hotel by armed ANC soldiers.

What happened next is described in the report submitted by Sergeant Egon Åberg after he was found and taken into the care of another Ghanaian UN unit on 29 April.

The report was written in English.

The events in Port Francqui have been described as a traumatic experience for the UN troops involved. After the European officers had been executed, the promise of safe passage for the Ghanaian UN soldiers was broken, and all of them were shot by ANC troops.

Accounts of the number of Ghanaian soldiers executed vary, but the figure was probably 47. Eyewitness accounts also suggest that many of those killed were subjected to cannibalism, further deepening the trauma. The bodies of the two Swedes, Carl Wilhelm Böttiger and Lars Liedgren, were never recovered.

The massacre left a deep wound among the UN troops in the Congo, one that never truly healed.

The following passage is taken from a letter written by a Swedish UN soldier to his mother. The letter is dated 2 September 1962, just over a year after the massacre. 

Kamina Base den 2/9 1962

Dear Mum,

(...)

Soon you will be able to read in the newspapers that ANC troops have arrived here to reinforce the base. It is an entire battalion. (...)

Incidentally, it was this very battalion that last year shot dead 30 Ghanaian soldiers serving with the UN forces and murdered two Swedish UN lads at a hospital.

The Ghanaian soldiers we have here at the base have said that, if they get the chance, they will shoot every ANC soldier they see.

So, as you can imagine, the ANC are not particularly popular here at the base.

(...)

Classe