Word: zaã
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Dates: during 1977-1977
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...running away from a ragtag band of Angola-based Katangese rebels. Now the rebels were on the run. The secret ingredient in the turn-around was mostly psychological: the presence of 1,500 elite Moroccan troops who had been airlifted in at Mobutu's desperate request. The Moroccans shamed Za??re's 4,000 troops in the fighting area into showing a little backbone. This persuaded the 2,000 or so rebels and, presumably, their Angolan and Cuban supporters as well that the cost of winning a war against Za??re would be too high...
...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, Za??rian 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...