U.S. aid for Zaire

Press, 17 March 1977, Page 8

U.S. aid for Zaire

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States is sending SIM worth of military supplies to Zaire after reports from Kinshasa that a 5000strong force has invaded the country from Angola. The extent of the fighting remained unclear but the State Department said on Tuesday that the “invading force” was gaining ground and had captured another border town. A State Department spokesman, Mr Frederick Brown, announcing the despatch of supplies, ranging from spares for Cl3O transport planes to haversacks, under this year’s SUS3OM military aid programme, said four towns had been taken.

Kapanga, Kisengi, and Dilolo were captured last week and the invaders had now apparently seized Sandoa, he said. Two United States missionaries were being held in Sandoa and eight others were under house arrest in Kapanga, Mr Brown added. Angola, Zaire’s southern neighbour, has denied the invasion charge. The Zairen Foreign Minister (Mr Ngunza Karlei Bond) told African diplomats in Kinshasa that the invaders were 5000-strong, led by men from across the Atlantic, presumably Cuba, and armed with rockets and missiles from across the Mediterranean, an apparent reference to the Soviet Union. But diplomatic sources in

Belgium, former colonial ruler of Zaire, said only about 500 people had entered Zaire from Angola and there had been little if any fighting with Zaire forces. “They are Katangan gendarmes going home,” one diplomat said. Katangan gendarmes are former supporters of the late Moise Tshombe who, in the early 1960’5, staged an abortive attempt to secede the mineral-rich Katanga area now known as Shaba from the rest of Zaire.

They were recruited by the Portuguese Army in Angola to fight against the liberation movements, but when the pro-Marxist government of President Agostinho Neto came to power they were retained in the Angolan Army.