Word: shaba
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...authority to conduct foreign policy, he confronted a series of new challenges last week. In Ethiopia, government forces, backed by Cuban troops, opened an offensive against secessionists in Eritrea. In pro-U.S. Zaïre, leftist rebels based in Angola stormed into the copper-rich province of Shaba. At breakfast with congressional leaders, Carter fumed specifically about his "frustration at having his hands tied" by the 1975 law restricting U.S. intervention in Angola...
Once again the copper-rich region of Shaba (formerly Katanga Province) in southeastern Zaïre was engulfed in civil war. An estimated 5,000 Katangese. guerrillas of the Congolese National Liberation Front (F.L.N.C.), which has been seeking autonomy for Shaba since Zaïre gained its independence from Belgium in 1960, launched a 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...
Ever since Moroccan troops arrived last month and the U.S., France and Belgium offered a little help, the fortunes of Zaire's strange little war have turned sharply in favor of the central government. As the threat declined, President Mobutu Sese Seko flew to the supposedly embattled Shaba region?the former Katanga province?to inspect some recaptured villages. TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief Lee Griggs, who accompanied Mobutu on the trip, sent this report...
Nonetheless, Mobutu was making the most of his moment of victory. Once the rebel retreat had begun, he flew to the region, where he was dutifully hailed by cheering crowds as the "savior of Shaba." As drum majorettes danced before le Guide, the well-coached crowds belted out songs of praise. Sample: "We are not afraid of the menace of mercenaries, for we have Mobutu, our guide and our faith...
...will not leave until I set foot in Mutshatsha," Mobutu declared grandly, referring to the town in western Shaba that had been hastily abandoned without a fight in late March. Sure enough, it fell the next morning, and he was soon off in his leopard-skin-carpeted helicopter to inspect it. He found Mutshatsha deserted of civilians but little damaged. Producing some Soviet-made weapons abandoned by the rebels, Mobutu declared: "What you have seen proves that the Russians are the real enemy...