Page "Military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo" Paragraph 30

During 1975 – 1976, Mobutu directed the FAZ to intervene in the Angolan Civil War assisting the National Liberation Front of Angola ( FNLA )' s fight against the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( MPLA ).

This policy backfired when the MPLA won in Angola, and then, acting ostensibly at least as the ( Front for the National Liberation of the Congo ), occupied Zaire's Katanga Province, then known as Shaba, in March, 1977, facing little resistance from the FAZ.

This invasion is sometimes known as Shaba I. Mobutu had to request assistance, which was provided by Morocco in the form of regular troops who routed the MPLA and their Cuban advisors out of Katanga.

The humiliation of this episode led to civil unrest in Zaire in early 1978, which the FAZ had to put down.