Qualla: Operation Kitona

Operation Kitona: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy, Public domain. On August 3, 1998 -- the day after the rebellion began in Goma -- Rwandan commandos seized Goma International Airport in eastern Congo and hijacked four civilian airliners -- two Boeing 727s and two Boeing 707s -- sitting on the tarmac. The following day, pilots were ordered at gunpoint to fly over 1,900 kilometers west across the breadth of the Congo to Kitona Air Base, a remote installation just 320 kilometers from Kinshasa. The 727s landed first. Their airstairs dropped while the planes were still taxiing, and commandos spilled onto the runway. Within thirty minutes, the base was theirs. It was the opening move of what would become the Second Congo War, the deadliest conflict since World War II, and one of the most audacious airborne operations in modern military history.

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Image: US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy | Public domain

Operation Kitona: The Patron Turned Threat

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy, Public domain. A year earlier, Rwanda and Uganda had helped install Laurent-Desire Kabila as president of the newly renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo, toppling the long-ruling Mobutu Sese Seko in the First Congo War. Kabila owed his throne to his eastern neighbors. He appointed Rwandan J...

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Image: US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy | Public domain

Operation Kitona: Kabarebe's Gamble

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alaindg, CC BY 2.5. The plan was James Kabarebe's, and it was breathtaking in its ambition. Rather than fight westward across a thousand miles of jungle from Rwanda's border, Kabarebe proposed leapfrogging the entire country by air. Kitona Air Base in western Congo's Bas-Congo province sat near the ...

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Image: Alaindg | CC BY 2.5

Operation Kitona: A Coastline Falls

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy, Public domain. The offensive swept through western Congo with alarming speed. By August 5, the oil infrastructure at Moanda and the port of Banana had been captured. Widespread atrocities -- rape and looting -- followed in areas the Rwandans occupied. Boma fell on August 7, a hundred kilometers...

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Image: US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy | Public domain

Operation Kitona: The Allies Kabila Found

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy, Public domain. Kabarebe's intelligence had identified one critical assumption: that Angola, whose army was the most powerful in the region, would not intervene on Kabila's behalf. The assumption was wrong. While many Angolan military officers harbored no love for Kabila, President Jose Eduardo ...

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Image: US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy | Public domain

Operation Kitona: Audacity and Its Price

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy, Public domain. The operation collapsed. Kabarebe's forces withdrew into the Angolan jungle and were eventually evacuated by air back to Rwanda in late 1998. The goal of toppling Kabila had failed. Yet the war that Operation Kitona ignited was only beginning -- the Second Congo War would rage un...

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Image: US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy | Public domain