Going back to my roots and remaking old banger threads: This time I'II be talking about the Kabarebe Blitz, Africa's strangest battle

Set the scene: The second Congo war was a huge success! A triumphant Kabila declared himself president in May of 1997 and Zaire becomes the DRC.

Kabila had many ideas for the vast, mineral-rich country he now ruled, this did not go down well with his old allies.

At this time Kagame is understandably miffed, first he they may be denied access to the Iucerative mineral wealth of the DRC, and second, he can no longer kiII Hutus who took refuge in the Congo, some with Kabila's blessing, war is inevitable. He calls in his Allies once more

Anyone who's tried fighting a conventional war in Subsaharan Africa will tell you, it's a terrible environment for mechanized warfare. But as it turns out African warpIanners have an affinity for airborne warfare

Enter Rwandan chief of staff James Kabarebe.

On Aug 4 1998 as Congo faced mutiny, Rwandan commandos entered Goma a town in eastern DRC on the border of Rwanda. While securing a local airport they commandeered at least four airliners. Using these, 800 Rwandans including an artillery unit flew to Kitona on the Atlantic coast

Using unprotected airliners to deploy hundreds of troops for an invasion of a major capital of a foreign country might seem risky, even insane. However, the fact is that much of the air space over the DRC remains unmonitored even today. In 1998, the DRC had no air force.

From Kitona they would be able to take control of the Bas-Congo province, home to Congo's only seaports, as well as the Inga Dam, the main source of electricity for DRC.

It was at this moment that 800 Rwandans controlled the fates of 60 million Congolese

Once in Kitona, Kabarebe's first act was to free thousands of Mobutu’s men being held in camps by Kabila.
After spending a few suitcases full of cash, his task force the "Kitona raiders" — now numbered around 800 Rwandans, a few hundred Ugandans, and up to 10,000 Congolese.

By this point, Kabila's government was in chaos; Kinshasa was cut off from the outside world and without power, portions of eastern Congo were under Rebel control, and Rwandan raiders were only 145 miles from Kinshasa. This caused panic.

At this time it is important to talk about the third major player in this battle: Zimbabwe!

Kabila had been in talks with Zimbabwe since before the outbreak of war, on August 4th Mugabe and Kabila signed a military cooperation treaty.

Fresh off wars in Mozambique and counterinsurgency in Zimbabwe. a contingent of Zimbabwean SAS led by Air Marshal Perrance Shiri arrived at N'Djili Airport at Kinshasa. This action, code-named "Operation Sovereignty Legitimacy" marked the start of Zimbabwean involvement.

The Zimbabwe defense force of the 90s was a highly professional force armed with the discarded remains of Rhodesia's security forces. by Aug 22 the ZDF had one squadron of its own SAS, 800 paratroopers, 15 armored cars of Brazilian origin, 16 helicopters and eight combat aircraft

The first clash between Kabarebe and Zimbabweans occurred on Aug 24th 60 miles southwest of Kinshasa. After a fighter sighted a column of tanks operated by Kabarebe's men, the Zimbabwean SAS attacked. The lead was knocked out and the other crews dismounted and ran into the jungle

Kabarebe thus lost the heaviest component of his force before the battle for Kinshasa even began. Nevertheless, Kabarebe regrouped his forces and continued the advance. Early on the morning of Aug. 26 1998, his troops finally reached the southeastern outskirts of Kinshasa

The first Rwandan attack came by surprise. Kabarebe sent a column of rebels disguised as retreating Congolese toward the airport, The first column approached N'Djili without any interruption. They were identified as enemy by the crews of ZDF Cascavels fewer than 100 yards away

Zimbabwean armored cars poured murderous fire down on the assailants. The smoke hadn’t yet cleared when the second wave of Rwandans and more Congolese rebels appeared. The ZDF was forced to withdraw toward the main terminal

Rwandans and Congolese mutineers managed to capture not only the western threshold of N’Djili’s runway but also the terminal. Zimbabweans remained in possession of the northern military side of the airport plus the control tower, where a small group of paras and SAS entrenched.

ZDF scrambled all of their attack planes and helicopters and were airborne within minutes. Using the northern half of the runway they launched downwind, made a turn over the Congo River, then returned to bomb — literally — the other end of the runway from which they had taken off

For the rest of the day, the Hawks, Lynxes, and helicopters continued pounding enemy positions, causing heavy casualties and forcing the enemy to stop further attacks and entrench around the western threshold

The heaviest fighting erupted on the morning of Aug. 27, when Kabarebe deployed his last few remaining Type-62 light tanks and a significant number of anti-aircraft guns in support of his next assault. Supported by Cascavels and the SAS, the Zimbabwean paras routed the first wave

The same happened to Kabarebe’s 2nd attack, launched late in the afternoon. Zimbabwean aircraft and helicopters continued launching from the northern end of the 15,420 foot runway. With the enemy that close they were able to take the maximal brunt of bombs and rockets.

On Aug. 28, the ZDF counterattacked, the Rwandans engaged the Zimbabweans in savage trench warfare for another two days. Finally, on the night of Aug. 31, 1998, Kabarebe ordered his surviving Rwandan troops to disengage, leaving behind thousands of his dazed Congolese mutineers