13th May 1978
6000km away From France at 05:30 local time, machine gun fire could be heard on the far side of the mining town of Kolwezi, Zaire, nowadays known as République Démocratique du Congo.
Little bit of history:
Zaire, other times known as the Belgian Congo or the Kongo Kingdom, was first discovered by a Portuguese expedition in what was then to be named the Kongo Kingdom. It amalgamated the territories of what are today’s modern RDG and the people’s republic of Angola. Things went well for a few decades, with the monarchs of Kongo, known as the Mani Kongo, and the Portuguese until the main commerce centralised on the slave trade. The only people taking profit from this trade were the monarchs, and their chief officials, and of course the Portuguese soldier-merchants, who shipped the slaves to Europe.
Hostilities broke out with the various tribes, with some of the monarchs and several Portuguese citizens being assassinated. Those monarchs that had been spared were the ones openly against the slave trade, which led to a breakdown in relations between the Kongo and Portugal.
The Portuguese sent a large military force to try and establish some semblance of order. However they found it extremely difficult to govern the tribes of the kingdom and various claimants continued to assert their rights to lands. The kingdom became split into two, separated by the Congo River.
The first European to travel down the river was the Belgian explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1877. Leopold 2nd, king of Belgium, commissioned Stanley to undertake further exploration and to establish a port and trading stations along the river. After the success of Stanley’s expedition and his discoveries, king Leopold’s claims to the Congo River basin were granted at the Berlin Conference in 1885. Under Leopold’s personnel rule, he established “the independent state of Congoâ€.
Brutalities and massacres, which Leopold turned a blind eye to, became so severe that, in 1908, under international pressure, the Congo became a colony placed under direct rule of the Belgian government.
In 1959 nationalist rioting broke out so intensely in the capital Kinshasa, formally known as Leopoldville, that the Belgian government, under public pressure both home and abroad, granted independence a year and a half later. With next to no time for preparation, a coalition government was formed with Joseph Kasavubu as president and his ethnic rival Patrice Lumumba became premier. Political and ethnic rivalries grew in politics and in the streets to such a crescendo that the very existence of the new democratic republic of Congo was threatened. The central government in Kinshasa was unable to control its outlying provinces.
Moise Tshombe, the political leader of the province of Katanga took advantage of the weak government and, backed by European settlers with investments in mines, declared Katanga an independent state. Kasavubu, finding no solution to the rioting and a country, now uncontrollable, dismissed the premier Lumumba and then later had him arrested. A year later, Lumumba was assassinated. With the help of Colonel Joseph Mobutu, Kasavubu seized control of the army. Cyrille Andoula was made premier.
Because it was so rich in metals, one of them being cobalt, which is added to the hydrogen bomb to increase its force, Katanga province was vital to the Congo’s income. The Congo is by far the largest producer of cobalt in the world. Calling upon the United Nations for military assistance in 1963, Kasavubu retook Katanga and Tshombe fled to Spain. The triumph was short lived, the unrest continued and a year later it was the turn of Andoula to be ousted from the government. Tshombe’s enormous popularity led Kasavubu to recall him back to the Congo and made him premier.
Even with this change, the government still could not keep a hold on the country. In 1965 Mobutu once again seized power, but this time kept it for himself by deposing Kasavubu and returning Tshombe to exile. Mobutu appointed himself prime minister in 1966 and became president in 1967. He then declared that his party the MPR, popular movement for the revolution, the sole official party.
Although he had been charged with violating human rights Mobutu, who had by then changed his first names from Joseph Desiré to Sese Seko did, with his hard line tactics, bring political stability to the Congo. In 1971, in another political move, Mobutu changed the country’s name to Zaire, taken from the KiKongo tribal name Nzadi, meaning river. By that time Mobutu had reduced the church’s influence in the country and made the people change their names from Christian or European to African.
A year later the province of Katanga had its name changed to Shaba which in Swahili means copper, denoting another example of the provinces wealth. Despite these changes, discontent and rioting continued until Nathaniel N’Bumba took his gendarmes stationed in Shaba, who had not been paid for several months, across the Congo River to Angola. There, Cubans trained them properly in weapons and tactics and they were brain washed by communism.
On 8th March 1977, after several months of intensive training, the ex-gendarmes, led by the newly promoted general N’Bumba invaded Shaba. They were armed and supplied by the USSR who would profit immensely by Shaba’s wealth in metals, minerals, industrial diamonds and notably its cobalt.
President Bongo of the organisation of United Africa called upon King Hassan 2nd of Morocco to send in troops. Our planes flew the Moroccans and supported by Mobutu’s elite division “Kamnayolaâ€, sent them packing back to Angola.
After a couple of months the situation became a stalemate with neither side taking the initiative. However under pressure from Cuba and Moscow, N’Bumba captured the mining town of Kolwezi. Unfortunately N’Bumba lost control of the ex-gendarmes which would undoubtedly lead to pillaging and rape.
A radio message had been intercepted by Mobutu’s internal security service which stated that N’Bumba has ordered his rebels to massacre their hostages. The rebels had been estimated at being 800 hard-core and several hundred sympathisers. Up until that moment only one family had managed to get out of the town and it was reported of at least 40 Europeans had been massacred on the East side of Kolwezi at a place called “Chateau d’eauâ€. The nationalities of those massacred had yet to be established.
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, president of France gave the go ahead for a military intervention within the least possible delay. “with or without the help of other nationsâ€.
“Which para is on alert ‘Guépard’?†he had asked, referring to the parachute regiment whose turn it was to be on short notice alert. The word Guépard, meaning cheetah in French, speaks for itself.
The general commanding the 11th Airborne Division, Jeannou Lacaze, answered him (as incredible as it may seem): The particular regiment in question has long been overdue leave. “I have just been informed that their commanding officer has allowed them a few days stand down.â€
General Lacaze, went on: “there is only one para regiment which maintains a constant state of readiness and can hope to assemble the number of troops necessary without forewarning. I myself commanded the regiment in 1967 and am sure, in spite of the short notice, that the 2e REP can be ready†(this involved landing two helicopters on the 4th RE -Castel-parade square to pick up their men on courses).
And another chapter was written in the Legion’s history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuXhHmZKZFw
6000km away From France at 05:30 local time, machine gun fire could be heard on the far side of the mining town of Kolwezi, Zaire, nowadays known as République Démocratique du Congo.
Little bit of history:
Zaire, other times known as the Belgian Congo or the Kongo Kingdom, was first discovered by a Portuguese expedition in what was then to be named the Kongo Kingdom. It amalgamated the territories of what are today’s modern RDG and the people’s republic of Angola. Things went well for a few decades, with the monarchs of Kongo, known as the Mani Kongo, and the Portuguese until the main commerce centralised on the slave trade. The only people taking profit from this trade were the monarchs, and their chief officials, and of course the Portuguese soldier-merchants, who shipped the slaves to Europe.
Hostilities broke out with the various tribes, with some of the monarchs and several Portuguese citizens being assassinated. Those monarchs that had been spared were the ones openly against the slave trade, which led to a breakdown in relations between the Kongo and Portugal.
The Portuguese sent a large military force to try and establish some semblance of order. However they found it extremely difficult to govern the tribes of the kingdom and various claimants continued to assert their rights to lands. The kingdom became split into two, separated by the Congo River.
The first European to travel down the river was the Belgian explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1877. Leopold 2nd, king of Belgium, commissioned Stanley to undertake further exploration and to establish a port and trading stations along the river. After the success of Stanley’s expedition and his discoveries, king Leopold’s claims to the Congo River basin were granted at the Berlin Conference in 1885. Under Leopold’s personnel rule, he established “the independent state of Congoâ€.
Brutalities and massacres, which Leopold turned a blind eye to, became so severe that, in 1908, under international pressure, the Congo became a colony placed under direct rule of the Belgian government.
In 1959 nationalist rioting broke out so intensely in the capital Kinshasa, formally known as Leopoldville, that the Belgian government, under public pressure both home and abroad, granted independence a year and a half later. With next to no time for preparation, a coalition government was formed with Joseph Kasavubu as president and his ethnic rival Patrice Lumumba became premier. Political and ethnic rivalries grew in politics and in the streets to such a crescendo that the very existence of the new democratic republic of Congo was threatened. The central government in Kinshasa was unable to control its outlying provinces.
Moise Tshombe, the political leader of the province of Katanga took advantage of the weak government and, backed by European settlers with investments in mines, declared Katanga an independent state. Kasavubu, finding no solution to the rioting and a country, now uncontrollable, dismissed the premier Lumumba and then later had him arrested. A year later, Lumumba was assassinated. With the help of Colonel Joseph Mobutu, Kasavubu seized control of the army. Cyrille Andoula was made premier.
Because it was so rich in metals, one of them being cobalt, which is added to the hydrogen bomb to increase its force, Katanga province was vital to the Congo’s income. The Congo is by far the largest producer of cobalt in the world. Calling upon the United Nations for military assistance in 1963, Kasavubu retook Katanga and Tshombe fled to Spain. The triumph was short lived, the unrest continued and a year later it was the turn of Andoula to be ousted from the government. Tshombe’s enormous popularity led Kasavubu to recall him back to the Congo and made him premier.
Even with this change, the government still could not keep a hold on the country. In 1965 Mobutu once again seized power, but this time kept it for himself by deposing Kasavubu and returning Tshombe to exile. Mobutu appointed himself prime minister in 1966 and became president in 1967. He then declared that his party the MPR, popular movement for the revolution, the sole official party.
Although he had been charged with violating human rights Mobutu, who had by then changed his first names from Joseph Desiré to Sese Seko did, with his hard line tactics, bring political stability to the Congo. In 1971, in another political move, Mobutu changed the country’s name to Zaire, taken from the KiKongo tribal name Nzadi, meaning river. By that time Mobutu had reduced the church’s influence in the country and made the people change their names from Christian or European to African.
A year later the province of Katanga had its name changed to Shaba which in Swahili means copper, denoting another example of the provinces wealth. Despite these changes, discontent and rioting continued until Nathaniel N’Bumba took his gendarmes stationed in Shaba, who had not been paid for several months, across the Congo River to Angola. There, Cubans trained them properly in weapons and tactics and they were brain washed by communism.
On 8th March 1977, after several months of intensive training, the ex-gendarmes, led by the newly promoted general N’Bumba invaded Shaba. They were armed and supplied by the USSR who would profit immensely by Shaba’s wealth in metals, minerals, industrial diamonds and notably its cobalt.
President Bongo of the organisation of United Africa called upon King Hassan 2nd of Morocco to send in troops. Our planes flew the Moroccans and supported by Mobutu’s elite division “Kamnayolaâ€, sent them packing back to Angola.
After a couple of months the situation became a stalemate with neither side taking the initiative. However under pressure from Cuba and Moscow, N’Bumba captured the mining town of Kolwezi. Unfortunately N’Bumba lost control of the ex-gendarmes which would undoubtedly lead to pillaging and rape.
A radio message had been intercepted by Mobutu’s internal security service which stated that N’Bumba has ordered his rebels to massacre their hostages. The rebels had been estimated at being 800 hard-core and several hundred sympathisers. Up until that moment only one family had managed to get out of the town and it was reported of at least 40 Europeans had been massacred on the East side of Kolwezi at a place called “Chateau d’eauâ€. The nationalities of those massacred had yet to be established.
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, president of France gave the go ahead for a military intervention within the least possible delay. “with or without the help of other nationsâ€.
“Which para is on alert ‘Guépard’?†he had asked, referring to the parachute regiment whose turn it was to be on short notice alert. The word Guépard, meaning cheetah in French, speaks for itself.
The general commanding the 11th Airborne Division, Jeannou Lacaze, answered him (as incredible as it may seem): The particular regiment in question has long been overdue leave. “I have just been informed that their commanding officer has allowed them a few days stand down.â€
General Lacaze, went on: “there is only one para regiment which maintains a constant state of readiness and can hope to assemble the number of troops necessary without forewarning. I myself commanded the regiment in 1967 and am sure, in spite of the short notice, that the 2e REP can be ready†(this involved landing two helicopters on the 4th RE -Castel-parade square to pick up their men on courses).
And another chapter was written in the Legion’s history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuXhHmZKZFw
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