Torrential rains turned much of Zaïre's mineral-rich Shaba region (formerly Katanga province) into a knee-deep quagmire last week. The downpour further obscured the mysterious war being waged between about 2,000 invaders from neighboring Angola (TIME, March 28) and the forces of Zaïre's autocratic President Mobutu Sese Seko. After launching a few pinprick air raids, Mobutu's Army Chief of Staff Bumba Moaso Djogi claimed that the intruders were in retreat, "abandoning thousands of corpses" behind them.
Western sources, doubting that so many troops were involved, sketch a very different picture. According to them, the invadersexiled followers of the late Katangese separatist Moïse...