Kamina is the capital city of

Haut-Lomami Haut-Lomami (French for "Upper Lomami") is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Haut-Lomami, Haut-Katanga, Lualaba, and Tanganyika provinces are the result of the dismembermen ...

Province in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Transport

Kamina is known as an important railway node; three lines of the DRC railways run from Kamina toward the north, west, and south-east. The main railway line, the operating sections of the Cape to Cairo Railway, links the city with Tenke and

Lubumbashi Lubumbashi (former names: (French), ( Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katan ...

to the south and

Kabalo Kabalo is a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is in Tanganyika province on the Lualaba River and is the administrative center of Kabalo territory. Transport Kabalo is the junction of railway lines to the north and to Lake Tanganyi ...

and

Kindu Kindu is a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the capital of Maniema province. It has a population of about 200,000 and is situated on the Lualaba River at an altitude of about 500 metres, and is about 400 km west of Bukavu. Kindu ...

to the northeast. It has two airports, one civil ( Kamina Airport) and one military ( Kamina Base Airport). It lies along National Road 1 (N1) and Regional Road 630 (R630).

Military

The

Belgian Armed Forces The Belgian Defense Forces ( nl, Defensie; french: La Défense) is the national military of Belgium. The King of the Belgians is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Belgian Armed Forces was established after Belgium became indepen ...

established a large military base in Kamina after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The large base complex consisted of Base 1, an air base used for flying training, and Base 2, a paratroop training facility. From September 1953 to 1960, the Advanced Pilots' School of the

Belgian Air Force The Belgian Air Component ( nl, Luchtcomponent, french: Composante air) is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force ( nl, Belgische Luchtmacht; french: Force aérienne belg ...

operated some 60

North American Harvard The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

s from the base. When the Congo gained independence in June 1960, Belgium initially retained control of Kamina, under agreement with the Congolese government, but in October 1960 control of the base was taken over by the United Nations. The base was never under Katangese control, although Katangese troops occupied the nearby town of Kaminaville. In early 1964, the UN handed over Kamina to the Congolese Armed Forces. It is now a 'brassage' centre for the slowly forming Army of the

Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: Forces armées de la république démocratique du Congo ARDC is the state organisation responsible for defending the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FARDC was rebuilt pat ...

. Brassage is the process whereby fighters of the former DRC warring factions are brought together into new combined units.

Sports

In 2019, the Governor of

inaugurated the "Stade Joseph Kabila Kabange", a modern sports arena. The stadium was started in 2008, with 2 Million US dollars of funding from

Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika, Haut-Lomami, Lualaba, ...

. After work on the stadium halted for nearly a decade, the Governor announced that the stadium was completed as a gift from then-President

Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, Pres ...

to the population of

Transport

Military

Sports

See also

References

Further reading