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Zaire Navy
Zaire's 1,300-member navy includes 600 marines and
operates a
small ocean-going force with larger river and lake
flotillas.
Because Zaire's Atlantic Coast is only about forty
kilometers long,
Lake Tanganyika is the largest body of water that the navy
patrols,
so the navy's primary mission is to control illegal entry
into the
country and to conduct antismuggling patrols as well. The
navy has
bases at Banana on the coast; at Boma, Matadi, and
Kinshasa on the
lower Congo; and at Kalemie, on Lake Tanganyika. A dry
dock at Boma
is used to repair the navy's patrol craft. The service
reportedly
has only a few vessels that can operate for short periods
in the
ocean. Its inventory includes small numbers of
Chinese-made fast
patrol craft (inshore) as well as three ex-North Korean
torpedo
boats, without torpedo tubes, which are normally only
marginally
operational (see
table 17, Appendix). In addition, two
United
States-made coastal patrol craft, along with as many as
eighteen
French-built patrol craft, patrol the lakes and rivers
(although
their operational status is uncertain). Naval personnel
receive
basic training at the Banana Naval Base but in the past
generally
went to the United States, France, or Belgium for
intermediate and
advanced training.
Data as of December 1993
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