Shaba I

Shaba I
Part of the Shaba Invasions and the Cold War
Zairian troops with a beret-wearing Moroccan military advisor
Date 8 March – 26 May 1977 (2 months, 2 weeks and 4 days) Location Shaba Province, Zaire Result Zairian victory FNLC expelled from Shaba
Belligerents
Zaire Morocco Egypt France Belgium	Congolese National Liberation Front (FNLC)
Commanders and leaders
Mobutu Sese Seko Mampa Ngakwe Salamay Anwar El-Sadat Abdelkader Loubaris Hamidou Laanigri Ahmed Dlimi Leo Tindemans Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Nathaniel Mbumba
Strength
Zaire: 3,000–4,000 Morocco: 1,300–1,500 paratroopers Egypt: 50 Pilots and Technicians France: 20–65 soldiers Belgium: 80 soldiers	1,600–3,000 FNLC fighters
Casualties and losses
Morocco: 8 killed Foreign nationals: Glenn Eschtruth	~100+ killed

Katanga Province, renamed by Mobutu in 1972 as Shaba Province because of its copper wealth

Shaba I was a conflict in Zaire's Shaba (Katanga) Province lasting from 8 March to 26 May 1977. The conflict began when the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo (FNLC), a group of about 2,000 Katangan Congolese soldiers who were veterans of the Congo Crisis, the Angolan War of Independence, and the Angolan Civil War, crossed the border into Shaba from Angola. The FNLC made quick progress through the region because of the sympathizing locals and the disorganization of the Zairian military (Forces Armées Zaïroises, or FAZ). Travelling east from Zaire's border with Angola, the rebels reached Mutshatsha, a small town near the key mining town of Kolwezi.

Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko accused Angola, East Germany, Cuba and the Soviet Union of sponsoring the rebels. Motivated by anticommunism and by economic interests, both the Western Bloc and China sent assistance to support the Mobutu regime. The most significant intervention, orchestrated by the Safari Club, featured a French airlift of Moroccan troops into the war zone. The intervention turned the tide of the conflict. US President Jimmy Carter approved the shipment of supplies to Zaire but refused to send weapons or troops and maintained that there was no evidence of Cuban involvement. However, he did provide transportation for 416 Pan African Peacekeepers to the area, the evacuation of 809 French troops, and Belgian supplies.

The FAZ terrorized the population of the province during and after the war. Bombing and other acts of violence led 50,000 to 70,000 refugees to flee into Angola and Zambia. Journalists were prevented from entering the province, and several were arrested. However, Mobutu won a public relations victory and ensured continuing economic assistance from governments, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and a group of private lenders led by Citibank.

The FAZ and outside powers clashed again with insurgents in a 1978 conflict, Shaba II.

Background

Zaire

Mobutu with Nixon, 1973

A former Belgian colony, the Congo gained independence during the Year of Africa. The State of Katanga, led by Moise Tshombe, soon announced secession, supported by Belgian business interests, the Belgian military and indirectly by France.

The country was soon plunged into crisis after the assassination of its Pan-Africanist leader, Patrice Lumumba. After six years of war, power was seized by Joseph Mobutu, with help from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and support from the Western Bloc. Mobutu changed the name of Katanga Province to Shaba Province, after the Swahili word for copper.

Mobutu's Zaire maintained good relations with Western powers. Belgium had the largest investments in the country (worth $750 million to $1 billion), followed by the United States ($200 million) and France ($20 million). Franco-Zairian relations were improving, and the Zaire government had recently been snubbing Belgium for France by awarding the country a $500 million telecommunications contract in 1975. The contract, negotiated by French President Giscard d'Estaing, went to Thomson-CSFInternational with finances from the Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur, both institutions headed by members of Giscard d'Estaing's family. When Mobutu asked for international assistance, it was France that organised the military response.

Zaire received more military aid from the United States than any other sub-Saharan nation, the $30 million of annual assistance representing half of all military aid to the area.

Zaire was the world's primary exporter of cobalt and sourced 60% of the global supply. The country also exported 7% of world copper and 33% of industrial diamonds. Many of the mines for these resources were in Shaba,