Rwanda Uganda FAZ Mutineers Banyamulenge UNITA (Limited to assisting the Rwandan retreat)
DR Congo Zimbabwe (From 8 August) Angola (From 22 August)
Commanders and leaders
James Kabarebe James Kazini
Laurent-Désiré Kabila
Perrance Shiri Mike Nyambuya José Eduardo dos Santos
Units involved
Rwanda
High Command Unit Commandos
3 RPA Battalions
Uganda
Nguruma Battalion
Various Light Artillery
Zimbabwe
No. 4 Squadron ZAF
No. 7 Squadron ZAF
No. 8 Squadron ZAF
SAS Commandos
Angola
Briada de Commandos
Strength
3,000+ Rwandan and Ugandan Regulars
15,000+ Congolese Rebels
DR Congo Unknown Zimbabwe 800+
Angola 2,500+
Casualties and losses
Unknown (Likely in the thousands)
Unknown
Thousands of civilian casualties
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Location within Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Conflicts in DR Congo
Background
Colonization
Congo Free State
Atrocities
Belgian Congo
during WWII
1944 Kivu uprising
Léopoldville riots
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Congo Crisis
Force Publique mutinies
Secession crisis
Katanga
South Kasai
Invasion
Congo-Stanleyville
UN intervention
Rum Punch
Niemba ambush
Battle of Kabalo
Jadotville
UNOKAT
Camp Massart
Grandslam
Kindu atrocity
Port Francqui incident
Kanyarwanda War
Kwilu rebellion
Simba rebellion
Dragon Rouge
Dragon Noir
White Giant
Violettes Imperiales
South
Other major events
Dissolution of the Lumumba Government
Torture and killing of Lumumba
Death of Dag Hammarskjöld
Shaba Invasions
Shaba I
Shaba II
Battle of Kolwezi
Non-aggression pact of 1979
First Congo War
Background
Shaba Invasions
Second Sudanese Civil War
War in Uganda (1986–1994)
1991 Zaire unrest
Burundian Civil War
Rwandan Civil War
Assassination of Habyarimana
Rwandan genocide
Great Lakes refugee crisis
War
Formation of the AFDL
Massacres of Hutus
Operation Thunderbolt
Battle of Kisangani (1997) [fr]
Overthrow of Mobutu
Ascension of Laurent Kabila
Second Congo War
Operation Kitona
Lusaka Ceasefire
Gbadolite Agreement
Sun City Agreement
Six-Day War
Assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila
Kisangani massacre
Effacer le tableau
Bogoro massacre
Pretoria Accord
MONUSCO
ICC investigation
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Ituri conflict
Bogoro
Artemis
North Night Final
Marabho
Ndjala
Plaine Savo
Nyamamba and Mbogi
Response
UN 1484
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Kivu conflict
Lemera massacre
Kasika massacre
Makobola massacre
Makombo massacre
2008 Nord-Kivu campaign
2009 Eastern Congo offensive
M23 rebellion (2012–13)
2014 North Kivu offensive
2017 CNPSC offensive
Uvira clashes
Oicha
Virunga
Kipupu massacre
Kagogo ambush
M23 offensive (2022–23)
Anti-MONUSCO protests
Kishishe massacre
1st Kitshanga
2nd Kitshanga
Masambo attack
Otomabere attack
August 2022 attacks
Kasindi church bombing
Makugwe massacre
Mukondi massacre
Other
Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
Katanga insurgency
Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
Dongo conflict
2011 coup d'etat attempt
Batwa–Luba clashes
2013 Kinshasa attacks
Kamwina Nsapu rebellion
Western DR Congo clashes
Child soldiers in the Congo
Operation Kitona was a Rwandan/Ugandan offensive that marked the beginning of the Second Congo War. Rwanda hoped to depose Laurent-Désiré Kabila and install a government more favorable to Rwanda's interests by quickly taking control of Kinshasa and the strategic western province of Bas-Congo (today Kongo Central). On August 4, 1998, joint Rwandan and Ugandan forces launched a surprise attack on Kitona airbase in Western Congo using hijacked civilian airliners. While initially successful in taking control of major ports and infrastructure, Zimbabwean and Angolan intervention prevented the Rwandans and Ugandans from taking control of Kinshasa. The invading forces were forced to withdraw to the jungles of Angola until they were evacuated by air to Rwanda in late 1998.
Today the operation is studied for its daring initial aerial assault, as well as the intelligence failures on the Rwandan side.
OperationKitona was a Rwandan/Ugandan offensive that marked the beginning of the Second Congo War. Rwanda hoped to depose Laurent-Désiré Kabila and install...
flew them to the government base of Kitona on the Atlantic coast. The planes landed in the middle of the Kitona base, but the motley collection of troops...
leading his soldiers into battle on the front-lines, as he did during OperationKitona in the Second Congo War. The other attribute was his total commitment...
in command of Zimbabwean forces defending N'Djili Airfield during OperationKitona. Nyambuya is a former army general. He served as Governor of Manicaland...
Katangese Gendarmerie stronghold was captured. Tshombe signed the 21 December Kitona Declaration, recognizing the authority of the central government and reintegrating...
Congolese Prime Minister Cyrille Adoula. On 21 December 1961 Tshombe signed the Kitona Declaration, an agreement whereby he would recognise the authority of the...
negotiate an agreement with the Congolese central government, which led to the Kitona Declaration stating that Katanga was part of the Congo and planned to re-integrate...
around Élisabethville. Faced with international pressure, Tshombe signed the Kitona Declaration in December 1961 in which he agreed in principle to accept the...
pressure on the rebel state, and eventually Tshombe relented and signed the Kitona Declaration. When in 1962 violence began to flare up again, Katangan gendarmes...
army in May 1997. (Prunier says that the instructors were still at the Kitona base when the Second Congo War broke out, and had to be quickly returned...
École interarmes in Belgium. In 1965, he became platoon school commander in Kitona, where he stayed for five years. He then became a military attaché to the...
Military pressure applied by the operation forced Tshombe to agree to negotiate with Adoula. Tshombe signed the Kitona Declaration on 21 December 1961...
triumph in Bukavu, Félix Mbuza Mabe was recalled by Kinshasa and sent to the Kitona base. In 2009, he died in Johannesburg after a long illness, probably due...
political and regional lines. The centres are spread out around the country at Kitona, Kamina, Kisangani, Rumangabo and Nyaleke (within the Virunga National Park)...
system. As a safeguard against Belgium being invaded again, two major bases, Kitona and Kamina, were established in the Belgian Congo. They were almost viewed...
to rebel attacks. The Ndigili airport, in Kibanseke Province, as well as Kitona, both held by Zimbabwean troops, were attacked simultaneously. In both cases...
Air Force of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Massamba commanded the Kitona Air Base until June 2007, when he was appointed as the chief of air force...
allowed for Belgian metropolitan troops to continue to garrison the bases of Kitona and Kamina until another agreement could arrange the installations' handover...
allowed for Belgian metropolitan troops to continue to garrison the bases of Kitona and Kamina until another agreement could arrange the installations' handover...
dramatist and director; of a heart attack At the U.N. military base at Kitona, in the Congo, Katangan President Moise Tshombe and Congolese Prime Minister...
Global Information
Rwanda
Uganda
UNITA
DR Congo
Zimbabwe
Angola
