On 17 May 1978, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) of the French Foreign Legion was put on alert to get involved in an emergency operation in Kolwezi, an important mining center located in the Katanga province of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the second largest country of Africa.

The main task of the operation was to rescue over 2,000 European hostages captured in Kolwezi by a group of some 1,500 Tigers (Katangese rebels) a few days earlier.

See the data + images of the Battle of Kolwezi of 1978.