Word: kolwezi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...deadly strike on the region from their bases in Marxist-run Angola. In a seesaw battle with the forces of President Mobutu Sese Seko, the Katangese rebels-who variously refer to themselves as les tigres (French for tigers) or camaradas (Portuguese for comrades)-captured the provincial capital of Kolwezi (pop. 100,000). The rebels carried out coldblooded executions, slaughtering at least 100 whites and 300 blacks, before they were driven from the city...
There was an ominous sense of déjà vu about the rebel incursion. In March 1977, another contingent of Katangese invaded Shaba, capturing the town of Mutshatsha and approaching to within 20 miles of Kolwezi before they were turned back by Mobutu's forces and 1,500 Moroccan soldiers who had been airlifted into the area by the French. Last week's invasion was not only bigger and better planned; it was also, according to Washington, actively supported by Cuban troops who have been training the F.L.N.C. guerrillas in Angola. Responding to an urgent telephone plea...
Hearing radioed reports that Europeans in Kolwezi were being brutalized by the Katangese, French and Belgian units parachuted into the city. In bitter street-by-street fighting, they pushed the guerrillas back into isolated pockets and opened a corridor to Kolwezi airport, five miles outside of town, which had been recaptured by Zaïre troops. At week's end the rebel hold on the city was broken and a mass airlift of refugees began. For some the aid came too late. Paratroopers found clusters of bodies, and survivors told of mock trials on street corners followed by swift...
...rebel retreat, from within 20 miles of the copper-mining center of Kolwezi, had started even before the government "offensive." As they probed slowly westward, with Moroccans providing back-up support and removing antipersonnel mines from the dirt tracks en route, Zaïrian forces encountered practically no resistance. There was not a single major firefight and hardly a contact of any kind. "This isn't a war," one bored Moroccan officer confided. "It is a matter of making armed reconnaissance and then retaking ground without a fight. To call it a war is a joke...
...last to have won a round in a murky conflict that some Africans have dubbed "the Termite War." Neither side seemed able to do any more than nibble away at the other. But last week government troops not only halted the advance of the ragtag invasion army toward Kolwezi, the center of Zaïre's copper-mining district, but also took the initiative for the first time. By week's end, government spokesmen were claiming that "a general offensive against all enemy positions" was under way with the primary purpose of recapturing the towns of Mutshatsha...