Thread by @everruler14029

#KITONA OPERATION

The Rwandans conceived a bold plan: As the offensive in the east of DRCongo developed, on 3rd August 1998, under the personal command of Colonel James Kabarebe (in May 2015, he was General and Rwandan Minister of Defense), Rwanda airlifted troops 1,500 km...

across DRCongo from Goma to Kitona airbase, located 320 km West of Kinshasa.
The Kitona operation featured a long range aerial insertion of ground troops behind enemy lines, with the aim of achieving a quick knockout victory.

This small force was required to push across 320 km of difficult terrain, seizing several intermediate objectives along the march, at the end of which it attempted to invest and occupy Kinshasa.

In doing this, Rwandans didn't expect Angola to be involved in fighting. The Rwandan Officer in charge of External Security Services had already met and convinced two Generals close to the President of Angola to stay outside the conflict but they lied to him.

Unfortunately, alongside Congolese army, Angolan and Zimbabwean armies intervened and prevented Rwandans from capturing Kinshasa, and forced them to pull back. On 23rd August 1998, as Rwandans troops were progressing toward Kinshasa, 2,500 Angolan troops, supported by tanks T-55,

and fighter aircraft (six Su-25K of 25th Regimento Aéreo de Caças-Bombardeiros, six Let-39 of 24th Regimento de Instruçao d’Aviaçao Militar and several helicopters Mi-24 and Mi-17) attacked the Rwandan rear base at Kitona.

The efforts to capture Kinshasa also failed, largely due to the stout resistance of Zimbabwean troops, in operation “Sovereign Legitimacy” with Parachutist Regiment, Commando Regiment and Special Air Service, supported by tanks T-55, Cascavel and fighter aircraft (helicopters...

Alouette III and AB-412, FTB-337 Lynx and Hawk).

Although outgunned and outnumbered and with little maneuver room, Commander James Kabarebe chose to conduct a tactical withdrawal rather than surrender.

The Rwandans and their allies pulled back into the hills, where they regrouped and took stock of their plight. They were dangerously short of supplies, their line of retreat was cut, and they were more than a thousand kilometers inside hostile country.

Undeterred, the Rwandans marched on Maquela do Zombo, a small regional airport across the Angolan border in mid-Sept 1998.

For nearly two months, the Rwandan contingent held the airport against encroaching Angolan forces and extended the length of the runway from 1400-1800meters

to allow for larger cargo planes to land. With the runway ready, aircraft began arriving to evacuate the contingent to Kigali. Over the next few days, the Rwandans made more than 30 flights out of Maquela do Zombo. However, as they emptied the airport...

they fell back from the perimeters. On the last day, their defenses were just a few kilometers from the airport. On the final night of the operation, the Rwandan rear guard and the commanders made a dash for the last plane, as the Angolans closed in.

In the morning of Christmas of 1998, the last flight from Maquela do Zombo landed on Kigali international airport

Lesson learned:

This long range aerial insertion of ground troops behind enemy lines is an example of a brilliant military operation that ultimately failed because of erroneous political assumptions.

This thread was adapted from “L’autre côté de la colline: La bataille de Kinshasa” by Stéphane Mantoux, Adrien Fontanellaz, David François, Jérôme Percheron, Albert Grandolini and Nicolas Aubin (2013) and “The Kitona Operation: Rwanda’s African Odyssey” by Comer Plummer (2007).