Battle of Kolwezi
The Battle of Kolwezi was a Franco-Belgian military operation in Zaire during the Second Shaba War .
On May 19 and 20, 1978, the Foreign Legionaries of the French 2e régiment étranger de parachutistes and Belgian Para-Commandos freed more than 2000 European hostages from the hands of rebels in Kolwezi . The situation arose after the Front national de liberation du Congo from Angola had brought resource-rich areas in southeastern Zaire under its control with the two Shaba invasions . The Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko was then supported by states of the West.
While the French troops focused on taking possession of the city, the Belgian troops that landed at Kolwezi airfield on May 20 evacuated the Europeans.
Movie
- La légion saute sur Kolwezi , F 1980, directed by Raoul Coutard
literature
- Adrian D. Gilbert: Voices of the Foreign Legion: The French Foreign Legion in its own words. Random House, 2011.
- Now they put you against the wall. One of the few Germans who was trapped in the Zairian mining town of Kolwezi is the technician Rainer Koch, 30, from Rodenbach in Hesse . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 1978 ( online - eyewitness Koch - evacuated from Zaire last week - told SPIEGEL the invasion of the rebels, their looting and murders in the mining town).
- My brother no longer has a head. SPIEGEL editor Erich Wiedemann in the Zairian city of Kolwezi, liberated by the rebels . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 1978 ( online ).
- Occupants want to "smoke out" nests of resistance in Kolwezi . In: Neues Deutschland , May 22, 1979
- Always ready. The ex-colonial power France intervenes at many points - from Djibouti to Senegal , in: Der Spiegel No. 40 of October 1, 1979
Web links
Commons : Battle of Kolwezi - Collection of images, videos and audio files
- Air landing procedure (PDF)