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Zaire Involvement in Angola
Despite the deficiencies of the FAZ, during the early
1970s
Mobutu was viewed as a major player in Africa, and the
Zairian
military was considered to have improved. As a result,
Mobutu
sought to acquire the image of power broker by involving
himself in
the Angolan civil war. Anxious to prevent the victory of
the
Soviet- and Cuban-backed MPLA, Mobutu sent several
battalions of
the Zairian army into Angola to support anti-MPLA forces.
These
units advanced south toward Luanda with FNLA elements and
also
entered Cabinda with forces of the Front for the
Liberation of the
Enclave of Cabinda (Frente para a Libertação do Enclavo de
Cabinda-
-FLEC). During October 1975, FAZ/FNLA forces advanced in
the
direction of Luanda, encountering gradually stiffening
resistance
from MPLA units defending the city. MPLA forces received
assistance
from Zairian exiles and Cuban units. This combined force
routed the
Zairian/FNLA soldiers and counterattacked, sending them
fleeing
toward the Zairian border. As the FAZ retreated, it
disintegrated
into disorganized bands looting the countryside. According
to
historian Crawford Young, the result for Mobutu could
hardly have
been worse: "humiliating defeat for the army; the
entrenchment of
his enemies in Luanda; and the exposure of Zaire as a
junior
partner" to the United States and South Africa.
Data as of December 1993
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