Unwilling to relinquish his dream of an independent Katanga, Tshombe directed two major military campaigns to regain control of the province, known as the Shaba wars. The first Shaba war began on March 8, 1977, when Tshombe led two thousand soldiers to take control of major mining sites across the province. Hundreds of civilians were killed, and tens of thousands fled. The feeble Zairian military offered little resistance. A desperate Joseph Mobutu portrayed the invaders as communists backed by the Soviet Union to draw Western support. Once again fearing a communist takeover of the Congo’s
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