Gbadolite - History

History

Mobutu built Gbadolite into a luxurious town often nicknamed "Versailles of the Jungle". He built a hydroelectric dam on the nearby Ubangi River in Mobayi Mbongo, an international airport, Moanda Airport, which could accommodate the Concorde, and three large palaces. As a result, the people of the town had no trouble finding jobs, often as servants. During Mobutu's regime, Gbadolite had also companies such as CDIA for farming productions, SOZAGEC for road constructions, and SAFRICAS for house constructions. The town had a General Hospital with high tech facilities which were destroyed in 1997. Gbadolite had also College Presidentiel, a high school famous for its academic excellence and administered by Jesuit Fathers to whom Mobutu gave the school. This School had a chemistry lab, physics lab, computer lab, olympic game facilities, band instruments of all kinds. The town was also famous for its Chapelle Marie la Misericorde, a luxurious church in which Mobutu buried his first wife Mama Mobutu.

Two palaces were built outside Gbadolite at Kawele. One an elaborate complex of Chinese pagodas and the other a modern mansion, these were used as residences for Mobutu and guests. The three storey palace in Gbadolite was used primarily for public functions.

Mobutu also build a nuclear bunker, that could house more than 500 people and was the largest in Africa and the only nuclear bunker in Central Africa. The bunker was connected to the Ubangui River by a secret tunnel, giving access to the military harbor at the village of N'dangi.

When Laurent Kabila successfully led a rebellion and ousted Mobutu from power in 1997, Gbadolite was raided, and most of what was in the palaces was looted. The palaces are now being overrun by vegetation.

In 1998 the Ugandan backed MLC (Mouvement de Libération du Congo) rebel group, led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, captured Gbadolite from Kabila's government and it became the MLC's headquarters.

  • Site of the former Mobutu palace (ransacked)

  • Soldiers belonging to oppositions forces in Gbadolite

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