Word: za
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Mobutu also unveiled a remarkable secret weapon in the war: pygmy power. Some 150 "expert pygmy bowmen" -as a Zaïrian official described them -were sent to Shaba to infiltrate enemy lines. The diminutive tribesmen (average height under 5 ft.) were praised by one government newspaper as "formidably efficient units who can move silently and well against the enemy." Although they were issued rifles, most pygmies prefer carrying home-made bows that shoot arrows whose tips are coated with a lethal drug (derived from local plants), which kills the monkeys that they hunt for food. Skeptical foreign correspondents could...
...singular display of gall, Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev last week warned other nations against "meddling" in the Zaïrian war. Although there is no proof of direct Soviet involvement, it seems more and more certain that the Katangese rebels were armed and aided by Moscow's client, Angola, if not by the Cubans in that country...
...prisoners put on display by Mobutu reported that they had entered Zaïre from Angola, accompanied by 45 Cubans, who quickly departed once the Moroccans arrived on the scene. The Zaïre government claimed to have discovered a cache of 6,000 boxes of arms and ammunition-most of it Soviet-made. In Marrakesh, Morocco's King Hassan II insisted that his troops had found evidence of Cuban and white Angolan presence in Shaba. Despite the Carter Administration's cautious approach to events in Zaïre, a U.S. official in Washington admitted last week that...
...been allowed into Shaba. Thus, reports TIME Correspondent Lee Griggs from Kinshasa, foreign diplomats remain skeptical of the government's military claims. Nonetheless, Mobutu's forces may have stabilized the conflict-if only because the invaders showed last week that they can fight as poorly as the Zaïrians have. Moreover, the Angolans and Cubans may decide it is not worth risking greater involvement in Shaba now that Mobutu is receiving help from abroad...
...thing, King Hassan said that he was ready to send additional troops to Zaïre. For another, some of the French planes that were involved in the airlift of the Moroccans have been shifted to bases in Senegal and Chad; they can return to Zaïre on short notice. Then there is also the possibility of reinforcements from neighboring Uganda, whose mercurial dictator, Idi Amin Dada, suddenly turned up in Kinshasa last week to assure le Guide of military help if needed. Mobutu's government is gradually winning moral backing from other African states. If there...