View source for Shaba II

{{Short description|Historical military conflict}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Shaba II
| date              = 11 May – June 1978
| place             = [[Katanga Province|Shaba]], [[Zaire]]
| partof            = the [[Shaba Invasions]] and the [[Cold War]]
| casus             = |resua I
| image             = 
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| result            = [[Zaire|Zairian]] victory; mutual end of support for other nations' rebel groups
| combatant1        = {{plainlist|
*{{flag|Zaire}}
*{{flag|France|1974}}
*{{flag|Belgium}}
*{{flag|Morocco}}
*{{flag|United States}}
}}
| combatant2        = {{Flagicon image|FLNC Congo.svg}} [[Congolese National Liberation Front|FNLC]]
| commander1        = {{plainlist|
* {{flagicon|Zaire}} [[Mobutu Sese Seko]]
* {{flagicon|France|1974}} [[Guy Méry]]
* {{flagicon|France|1974}} [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]]
* {{flagicon|Belgium}} [[Leo Tindemans]]
* {{Flagicon|Morocco}} [[Abdelkader Loubaris]]
* {{Flagicon|United States}} [[John C. Stetson]]
}}
| commander2        = {{Flagicon image|FLNC Congo.svg}} Nathaniel Mbumba
| strength1         = 
| strength2         = 
| casualties1       = '''Zaire:'''<br>14 killed<br>8 wounded<ref name=def>{{cite web|title="OPÉRATION LÉOPARD" Une intervention humanitaire Kolwezi 17 mai-16 juin 1978|url=http://www.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/100780/978504/file/MC37.pdf|work=Collection « Mémoire et Citoyenneté » n° 37|publisher=Defense.gouv.fr|accessdate=1 April 2014|author=Ministère de la Défense|page=8}}</ref><br>Civilians:<br>500 killed<br>'''France''':<ref name=def/><br>11 killed<br>20 wounded<br>'''Belgium''':<ref name=def/><br>1 killed<br>'''Morocco''':<ref name=def/><br>1 paratrooper killed<br>'''European civilians''':<br>120 killed<ref name=def/><br>'''United States''':<ref name=def/><br>1 aircraft slightly damaged<br>1 crewman wounded
| casualties2       = '''Katanga''':<ref name=def/><br>~250–400 killed<br>160 captured
}}
{{Campaignbox Conflicts in Congo}}

'''Shaba II''' was a brief conflict fought in the [[Zaire]]an province of [[Katanga Province|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]].<ref name="criticism">Widstrand, Carl Gösta, Timothy M. Shaw, and Douglas George Anglin. ''Canada, Scandinavia, and Southern Africa'', 1978. Page 130.</ref>

==Foreign involvement==
The Mobutist government appealed for foreign assistance and [[France|French]] and [[Belgium|Belgian]] military intervention beat back the invasion, [[Shaba I|just as in 1977]].<ref name="overview">George, Edward. ''The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 1965-1991: From Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale'', 2005. Page 136.</ref>

The U.S. and [[Cuba]] coerced Angola and Zaire into negotiations leading to a non-aggression pact. That ended support for insurgencies in each other's countries. Zaire temporarily cut off support to the [[Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda]] (FLEC), the [[National Liberation Front of Angola]] (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ([[UNITA]]), and Angola forbade further activity by the Shaba separatists.<ref name="overview"/>

The U.S. worked with France in repelling the invaders in the first military co-operation between the two since the [[Vietnam War]].<ref name="criticism"/>{{dubious|date=September 2019}} [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] elements involved included a [[United States Air Force Combat Control Team|Combat Control Team]] (air traffic controllers) of the [[435th Air Ground Operations Wing|435th Tactical Airlift Wing]], the [[445th Airlift Wing]], and other airlift wings.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccshf.org/book/Chapter3.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2011-12-13 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912003029/http://www.ccshf.org/book/Chapter3.pdf |archivedate=2011-09-12 }}</ref>

==Battle of Kolwezi==
{{main|Battle of Kolwezi}}

The [[French Foreign Legion]]'s 2 Foreign Paratroop Regiment had 600 troops, who took back Kolwezi after a seven-day battle and airlifted 2,250 European citizens to Belgium but not before the FNLC had massacred 80 Europeans and 200 Africans. In one instance, the FNLC killed 34 European civilians who had hidden in a room. However, Zairean helicopter pilot [[Pierre Yambuya]] claims that many of the civilian deaths were caused by Zairian armed forces, not the FLNC.<ref>NDAYWELE NZIEM, ISIDORE, Histoire Générale du Congo, p.757 see https://books.google.com/books?id=U47B0mwVU_4C&dq=pierre+yambuya+flnc&pg=PA757</ref>

==Conclusion==
The FNLC retreated to Zambia and back to Angola, vowing to return. The Zairian armed forces ([[Forces Armées Zaïroises]]) forcibly evicted civilians along Shaba's {{convert|65|mi|km|adj=mid|-long|order=flip}} border with Angola, and Mobutu ordered them to shoot on sight.<ref name="kolwezibattle">[https://archive.today/20120913214453/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,916174,00.html Inside Kolwezi: Toll of Terror], 5 June 1978. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine</ref>

==See also==
*[[Angolan Civil War]]
*[[Cuban intervention in Angola]]
*[[Shaba I]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Shaba II}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070609181927/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/odom2/odom2.asp Shaba II: The French and Belgian Intervention in Zaire in 1978]
{{DR Congo conflicts footer}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaba Ii}}
[[Category:Cold War in Africa]]
[[Category:1978 in Angola]]
[[Category:Civil wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
[[Category:Wars involving Belgium]]
[[Category:Wars involving France]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1978]]
[[Category:1978 in Zaire]]
[[Category:Proxy wars]]
[[Category:Cold War military history of France]]
[[Category:Communism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo]]
[[Category:Military coups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo]]