Zaire Awarded Congo Medal 1977,Operation Shaba

To a French special advisor to the Zaire military. Zaire, Military Merit Medal, Operation Shaba I. Shaba I was a conflict in Zaire's Shaba (Katanga) Province lasting from March 8, 1977, to May 26, 1977. The conflict began when the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo (FNLC), a group of about 2,000 Katangan Congolese soldiers (veterans of the Congo Crisis, the Angolan War of Independence, and the Angolan Civil War) crossed the border into Shaba from Angola. The FNLC made quick progress through the region, due to sympathizing locals and to the disorganization of the Zairian military (Forces Arm?es Za?roises, or FAZ). Traveling east from Zaire's border with Angola, the rebels reached Mutshatsha, a small town near to the key mining town of Kolwezi.

President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire accused Angola, East Germany, Cuba, and the Soviet Union of sponsoring the rebels. Motivated by anti-Communism and by economic interests, the Western Bloc and China sent assistance to support the Mobutu regime. The most significant intervention, orchestrated by the Safari Club, featured a French airlift of Moroccan troops into the war zone. This intervention turned the tide of the conflict. U.S. President Jimmy Carter approved the shipment of supplies to Zaire, but refused to send weapons or troops and maintained that there was no evidence of Cuban involvement

Code: 21688