Question: Ferdinand Essandja (sometimes Fernand Essendja or Ferdinand Esandja) was a Congolese politician and businessman, he participated in negotiations for the independence of which Belgian colony in Central Africa between 1908 and 1960 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)?

Context articles: Ferdinand Essandja
March 23 Movement
Belgian Congo
China–Democratic Republic of the Congo relations
Victor Nendaka Bika
Moïse Katumbi
Laurent Nkunda
Central Africa
Fernand Kazadi
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ferdinand Essandja (sometimes Fernand Essendja or Ferdinand Esandja) was a Congolese politician and businessman.
 He was the chairman of the "Parti de l’Unité Congolaise" in 1959.
 He attended the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in early 1960 as a delegate of the "Parti National du Progrès" (PNP) to participate in negotiations for the Belgian Congo's independence.
 At one point he served as the mayor of the Barumbu commune of Léopoldville.
 In June 1961 Essendja became the managing director of Air Congo, the flag carrier of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
 By 1967 he was the vice president of company.
The March 23 Movement (French: "Mouvement du 23 mars" ), often abbreviated as M23 and also known as the Congolese Revolutionary Army ("Armée révolutionnaire du Congo"), was a rebel military group based in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), mainly operating in the province of North Kivu.
 The 2012 M23 rebellion against the DRC government led to the displacement of large numbers of people.
 On 20 November 2012, M23 took control of Goma, a provincial capital with a population of one million people, but was requested to evacuate it by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region because the DRC government had finally agreed to negotiate with them.
 In late 2013 Congolese troops, along with UN troops, retook control of Goma and M23 announced a ceasefire, saying it wanted to resume peace talks.
The Belgian Congo (French: "Congo Belge" , Dutch: "Belgisch-Congo" ) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa between 1908 and 1960 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have had peaceful diplomatic relations, and growing economic relations, since 1971.
 Relations between the two countries go back to 1887, when representatives of the Congo Free State established contacts with the court of the Qing dynasty then ruling China.
 The first treaty between the two powers was signed in 1898.
 The Free State became a Belgian colony in 1908, but when it gained its independence in 1960 it established formal relations with the Republic of China (ROC), which had replaced the Qing in 1912 but was relegated to the island of Taiwan after 1949.
 Over the next decade, Congolese recognition was switched several times between the ROC and the PRC before it settled finally on the latter in 1971.
 At the time, the Congo was known as Zaire.
 In the 21st century, Chinese investment in the DRC and Congolese exports to China have grown rapidly.
Victor Nendaka Bika (7 August 1923 – 22 August 2002) was a Congolese politician from the Democratic Republic of Congo (previously known as Zaire).
 Nicknamed "Oufkir" reminding Mohamed Oufkir, the right-hand man of King Hassan II in the 1960s and early 1970s, Victor Nendaka was the first Director of "Sûreté Nationale du Congo" (Congo's Security Services) after independence in June 1960.
 Nendaka once belonged to the Congolese National Movement (MNC) of Patrice Lumumba.
 For personal reasons, Victor quit the MNC and created MNC-Nendaka in March 1960.
 In his capacity as Head of Security Services, Nendaka is believed to have played a paramount role in the arrest, torture and transfer of Patrice Lumumba to Lubumbashi (then Elisabethville) where the first Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was brutally executed; allegations that Victor Nendaka vehemently denied on several occasions, one of which being at the hearings of the Lumumba's commission at the initiative of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.
 Victor Nendaka died on Thursday, 22 August 2002, at age 79, while in exile in Brussels, after Mobutu's regime was overthrown by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL or ADFLC) led by rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila and backed by President Paul Kagame's Rwanda in 1997.
Moïse Katumbi Chapwe (born December 28, 1964) is a Congolese politician and businessman, living in Europe after being convicted in absentia of crime in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 He was the Governor of the Katanga Province, located in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 2007 to September 2015.
 He was a member of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) until September 2015.
 He has been described by "The Economist" as "probably the second most powerful man in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the president, Joseph Kabila". "
Jeune Afrique" named him "African of the Year" in 2015.
Laurent Nkunda (or Laurent Nkundabatware Mihigo (birth name), or Laurent Nkunda Batware, or as he prefers to be called The Chairman; born February 2, 1967) is a former General in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is the former warlord (leader of a rebel faction) operating in the province of Nord-Kivu, sympathetic to Congolese Tutsis and the Tutsi-dominated government of neighbouring Rwanda.
 Nkunda, who is himself a Congolese Tutsi, commanded the former DRC troops of the 81st and 83rd Brigades of the DRC Army.
 He speaks English, French, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Lingala and Kinande.
 On January 22, 2009, he was put under house arrest in Gisenyi when he was called for a meeting to plan a joint operation between the Congolese and Rwandan militaries.
Central Africa is the core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda.
 Middle Africa (as used by the United Nations when categorising geographic subregions) is an analogous term that includes Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
 All of the states in the UN subregion of Middle Africa, plus those otherwise commonly reckoned in Central Africa (11 states in total), constitute the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
 Since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has also been commonly included in the region.
Ferdinand (Ferdinand) Kazadi Lupeleka (April 24, 1925 – June 26, 1984) was a Congolese politician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly called "Republic of Zaire").
 Lupelekese was a founding member of the College of Commissioners where he had been appointed General Commissioner of National Defense by President Joseph Mobutu, during the Congo Crisis in 1960.
 In 1969, he was appointed Commissioner of State for Public Matters and Territorial Management.
 He was elected Deputy Commissioner of the People on three occasions (1966, 1972 and 1977).
The Democratic Republic of the Congo ( ; ] ; French: "République démocratique du Congo" ), also known as Zaire, DR Congo, East Congo, DRC, DROC, Congo-Kinshasa or simply the Congo, is a country located in Central Africa.
 The DRC borders the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania to the east; Zambia and Angola to the south; the Republic of the Congo to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest.
 It is the second-largest country in Africa (largest in Sub-Saharan Africa) by area and eleventh largest in the world.
 With a population of over 80 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populated officially Francophone country, the fourth most-populated nation in Africa and the seventeenth most populated country in the world.