Louis Bobozo was born in 1915 in the Mongala District, Équateur Province, Belgian Congo.

[1] In 1941 he was deployed to Ethiopia to participate in the East African Campaign of World War II, commanding a machine gun platoon during the Siege of Saïo.

[3] He was one of the few Congolese soldiers in the entire army to achieve the rank of adjutant before the independence of the Congo in 1960.

African officers were appointed to replace European personnel to alleviate the problem, and Mobutu was made chief-of-staff of the force, renamed the Armée Nationale Congolaise (ANC).

Due to the upheaval in the officer corps and his family ties with Mobutu, Bobozo was quickly promoted to colonel and put in charge of the garrison of Camp Hardy in Thysville.