Adam's time in Zaire was marked by tense bilateral relations between Belgium and Zaire. On 24 April 1990, Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko announced the end of the country's one-party system and promised a series of measures to democratise Zaire. On the night of 11—12 May, however, student protests at the Lubumbashi campus of the National University of Zaire were met with bloody repression, resulting in many casualties as established by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Summary or Arbitrary Executions of the Commission on Human Rights Amos Wako. Adam visited the Lubumbashi premises. The bloody repression had profound repercussion to Belgo-Zairean relations, which were effectively put on hold until Mobutu's ousting from power by Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Adam further had a meeting with Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya regarding Mobutu in March 1991 which resulted in the writing of an "explosive note" about the situation by the ambassador. Adam left Zaire in August 1991, right before the week-long looting spree of the national army in September 1991 Kinshasa.