45th Anniversary of the Battle of Kolwezi

45 years ago, on May 17, 1978, legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) in Corsica were alerted and the next day, they took off in direction of then Zaire in Central Africa. There, on May 19, they jumped over Kolwezi, a mining center in the south of the country. The legionnaires would rescue over 2,000 Europeans captured and held by local rebels…

Read more45th Anniversary of the Battle of Kolwezi

41 years ago: Operation in Kolwezi started

In Corsica on May 17, 1978, legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) were put on alert. Two days later, they jumped over Kolwezi, a city located in then Zaire, Central Africa. They would rescue over 2,000 Europeans captured and held by local rebels. Thanks to the success of the operation and the then international media coverage, the regiment became popular across the world…

Read more41 years ago: Operation in Kolwezi started

40 years ago: A successful rescue operation in Kolwezi

On May 19, 1978, the legionnaires of the Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) jumped over Kolwezi, a city located in then Zaire, Central Africa. Their task was to rescue over 2,000 Europeans captured and held by local rebels. Thanks to the success of the operation and the international media coverage at the time, the regiment became popular across the world…

Read more40 years ago: A successful rescue operation in Kolwezi

37th Anniversary of the Battle of Kolwezi

On 17 May 1978, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) of the French Foreign Legion was put on alert to prepare to be sent to the Katanga province of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the country located in central Africa, to rescue the hundreds of European hostages captured by a group of some 1,500 Katangese rebels in the city of Kolwezi and to drive out the rebels from the city.

Read more37th Anniversary of the Battle of Kolwezi