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Shaba II

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Shaba II
DateMarch 17-June 1978
Location
Shaba, Zaire
Result Zairian victory; mutual end of support for other nations' rebel groups
Belligerents
Zaire
France
Belgium		 Front for the National Liberation of the Congo (FNLC)
Commanders and leaders
Mobutu Sese Seko Nathaniel Mbumba
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

Shaba II is a proxy war that occurred in 1978 when the FNLC, Shaba separatists, encouraged by the governments of Angola and Cuba, invaded Shaba, Zaire from eastern Angola. Mobutu of Zaire appealed for foreign assistance and French and Belgian military intervention beat back the invasion just as in 1977.[1]

The Congolese National Liberation Front (FNLC) captured Kolwezi.[2]

U.S. mediated negotiations between the Angolan and Zairian governments led to a peace accord and an end to support for insurgencies in each others' respective countries. Zaire temporarily cutoff support to FLEC, the FNLA, and UNITA and Angola forbid further activity by the Shaba separatists.[1]

The U.S. worked with France in repelling the invaders, the first military cooperation between the two nations since the Vietnam War.[2]

Battle of Kolwezi

Six hundred troops of the French Foreign Legion's 2 Foreign Paratroop Regiment took back Kolwezi after a seven-day battle and airlifted 2,250 European citizens to Belgium, but not before the FNLC massacred 80 Europeans and 200 Africans. In one instance the FNLC killed 34 European civilians who had hidden in a room. The FNLC retreated to Zambia and back to Angola, vowing to return. The Zairian army then forcibly evicted civilians along Shaba's 65-mile long border with Angola and Mobutu ordered them to shoot on sight.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b George, Edward. The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 1965-1991: From Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale, 2005. Page 136.
  2. ^ a b Widstrand, Carl Gösta, Timothy M. Shaw, and Douglas George Anglin. Canada, Scandinavia, and Southern Africa, 1978. Page 130.
  3. ^ Inside Kolwezi: Toll of Terror, June 5, 1978. TIME magazine
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