Shaba II

Shaba II
Part of the Shaba Invasions and the Cold War
Date11 May – June 1978
Location
Shaba, Zaire
Result Zairian victory; mutual end of support for other nations' rebel groups
Belligerents
 FNLC
Commanders and leaders
 Nathaniel Mbumba
Casualties and losses
Zaire:
14 killed
8 wounded[1]
Civilians:
500 killed
France:[1]
11 killed
20 wounded
Belgium:[1]
1 killed
Morocco:[1]
1 paratrooper killed
European civilians:
120 killed[1]
United States:[1]
1 aircraft slightly damaged
1 crewman wounded		 Katanga:[1]
~250 killed - 400 killed
160 captured

Shaba II was a brief conflict fought in the Zairean province of Shaba (now Katanga) in 1978. The conflict broke out on 11 May 1978 after 6,500 rebels from the Congolese National Liberation Front (FNLC), a Katangese separatist militia, crossed the border from Angola into Zaire in an attempt to achieve the province's secession from the Zairian regime of Mobutu Sese Seko. The FNLC captured the important mining town of Kolwezi.[2]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Ministère de la Défense. ""OPÉRATION LÉOPARD" Une intervention humanitaire Kolwezi 17 mai-16 juin 1978" (PDF). Collection « Mémoire et Citoyenneté » n° 37. Defense.gouv.fr. p. 8. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  2. ^ Widstrand, Carl Gösta, Timothy M. Shaw, and Douglas George Anglin. Canada, Scandinavia, and Southern Africa, 1978. Page 130.