Stade des Martyrs


The Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecôte, also known as simply the Stade des Martyrs and formerly known as Stade Kamanyola, is a national stadium located in the town of Lingwala in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is mainly used for football matches and has organised many concerts and athletics competitions.
It is the home stadium of the National Team of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the AS Vita Club and DC Motema Pembe of Championship Democratic Republic of the Congo football. The stadium has a capacity of 80,000 for international matches, but capacity is 125,000 for most matches.

History

The Stade des Martyrs was originally called Stade Kamanyola. Construction began on October 14, 1988 and ended on October 14, 1993. It replaced the former National Stadium, the Stade Tata Raphael.
In 1997, the stadium was renamed "Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecôte" in memory of four ministers purged by Mobutu Sese Seko and hanged at the site on 2 June 1966: Évariste Kimba, Jérôme Anany, Emmanuel Bamba, and Alexandre Mahamba.