[3] Engels was deputy governor-general of Congo-Kasaï province in the Belgian Congo from 1924 to 1929.
[1] He replaced Léon Guilain Bureau (1869–1944) as deputy governor-general of Congo-Kasaï in 1922.
[3] In September 1930 Engels was a member of a formal commission of inquiry into the conditions of laborers in the colony.
Other members included Colonel Alexis Bertrand[a] and Pierre Ryckmans, who had investigated the Kilo-Moto gold mines and the Huileries du Congo Belge (HCB).
When describing the very controversial summary execution by the Belgian officer Hubert Lothaire of the British merchant Charles Stokes in 1895, Engels describes Lothaire as a valliant officer, while Stokes had played an infamous role.