The conflict broke out on 11 May 1978 after 6,500 rebels from the Congolese National Liberation Front (FNLC), a Katangese separatist militia, crossed the border from Angola into Zaire in an attempt to achieve the province's secession from the Zairian regime of Mobutu Sese Seko.

[2] The Mobutist government appealed for foreign assistance and French and Belgian military intervention beat back the invasion, just as in 1977.

[3] The U.S. and Cuba coerced Angola and Zaire into negotiations leading to a non-aggression pact.

[3] The U.S. worked with France in repelling the invaders in the first military co-operation between the two since the Vietnam War.

However, Zairean helicopter pilot Pierre Yambuya claims that many of the civilian deaths were caused by Zairian armed forces, not the FLNC.