Lubumbashi, formerly √âlisabethville, is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the administrative center of Katanga Province. The town √âlisabethville was originally established by Belgian colonists as a copper-mining settlement and later in the 20th century designated as an urban district, bearing the fame of “the capital of copper”. The city also served as the capital of the secessionist independent state of Katanga during the 1960‚Äì1963 Congolese civil war and in 1990 it was the main scene of a brutal killing of students by Mobutu’s security forces.