Operation Unokat

Operation Unokat
Part of the Congo Crisis

Irish ONUC troops man a position over a road into Élisabethville during Operation Unokat
Date5 December 1961 – 21 December 1961
Location
Élisabethville, State of Katanga
Result

ONUC victory

  • Kitona Declaration
Belligerents

ONUC[a]

Supported by:
Congo-Léopoldville		  Katanga
Supported by:
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Commanders and leaders
U Thant
K.A.S. Raja		 Moïse Tshombe
Strength
4,500 2,500+
Casualties and losses
10–25 killed
34–120 wounded
15 captured		 80–206 killed
250–401 wounded
33–58 captured

Operation Unokat, also styled Operation UNOKAT, was an offensive undertaken by United Nations peacekeeping forces from 5 to 21 December 1961 against the gendarmerie of the State of Katanga, a secessionist state rebelling against the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in Central Africa. The United Nations had tried several times to reconcile the government of the Congo with the State of Katanga, which had declared independence under Moïse Tshombe with Belgian support in 1960.

Following the failure of Operation Morthor and the death of Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld, the new Secretary-General U Thant, backed by renewed international support, called for a more robust peacekeeping approach and for the UN to take more military action. A number of skirmishes between Katangese troops and UN forces in the Katangese capital of Élisabethville, and the establishment of roadblocks by the Katangese, led to the UN launching Operation Unokat.

The Katangese forces were gradually pushed back and UN forces secured Élisabethville. The Katangese agreed to negotiate an agreement with the Congolese central government, which led to the Kitona Declaration stating that Katanga was part of the Congo and planned to re-integrate with the Congo. However, the agreement was not carried out, forcing the UN to launch Operation Grandslam to forcibly reintegrate Katanga and end the secession.

  1. ^ Chakravorty 1976, p. 100.
  2. ^ Abbott 2014, pp. 12–13.
  3. ^ Kent 2010, pp. 76–77.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ThantNYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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