while Iléo failed to gain parliamentary approval. The stalemate was ended when Lumumba's aide and partisan, Colonel Joseph Mobutu arrested Lumumba, who was later transported to Katanga and killed there under dubious circumstances. In March 1961 the MNC-L hosted a party congress in Stanleyville to replace Lumumba as party president. Christophe Gbenye was elected to lead it, but leadership disputes continued to plague the party in subsequent years, with Joseph Kasongo, Charles Badjoko, Gabriel Lassiry, and Antoine Kiwewa all at times claiming to be Lumumba's rightful successor. At the conference, delegates expressed a general desire to form a larger bloc to encompass all Lumumbists in the country. Antoine Gizenga, a member of the Parti Solidaire Africain and former government colleague of Lumumba, announced in September that his party and the MNC-L were fusing together as the Parti National Lumumbiste. MNC-L leaders rejected the declaration, insisting a party congress would have to be held on a merger. Meanwhile, national political party activity outside of government steadily declined. While MNC-L persisted longer than other groupings and continued to hold some functions in early 1962, by 1963 nearly all party activity had ceased. MNC-L members continued to hold ministerial portfolios in the national government through 1963 but, due to leadership disputes, its members failed to act as a cohesive voting bloc in Parliament. In November 1965, following another fall-out between president and prime minister, Mobutu again seized power and under regime d'exception appointed himself President. Mobutu blamed the five years of turmoil on "the politicians" and decreed: "For five years, there will be no more political party activity in the country." Ban and anti-Mobutu activity This meant the end of the MNC's legal activity until 1990. The party continued to operate in exile, however, where it allied with other anti-Mobutu groups. In exile, the two main MNC groups were the MNC-L and the MNCR (Mouvement National Congolais Rénové, "Reformed Congolese National Movement"). The MNC-L also continued to suffer from factionalism and splintered into further groups during this period. The MNC-L main faction came under the leadership of François Lumumba, Patrice Lumumba's son. The different MNC groups organized a militant resistance in the Congo (renamed "Zaire" by Mobutu). The MNC-L set up an armed wing called "Lumumba Patriotic Army" (Armíe Patriotique Lumumba, APL) and formed a coalition with the Front for the Liberation of Congo – Patrice Lumumba (FLC-L), a militant group which waged