France—Zaire relations
From Roach Busters
As the largest francophone country in sub-Saharan Africa - and the second-largest French-speaking country in the world, Zaire was and is of great strategic interest to France. During the First Republic era, France tended to side with the conservative and federalist forces, as opposed to unitarists such as Lumumba. Shortly after the Katangan secession was successfully crushed, Zaire (then called the Republic of the Congo), signed a treaty of technical and cultural cooperation with France. During the presidency of de Gaulle, relations with the two countries gradually grew stronger and closer. In 1971, then-Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing paid a visit to Zaire; later, after becoming President, he would develop a close personal relationship with President Mobutu, and became one of the regime's closest foreign allies. During the Shaba invasions, France sided firmly with Mobutu: during the first Shaba invasion, France airlifted 1,500 Moroccan troops to Shaba, and they successfully repulsed the rebels; a year later, during the second Shaba invasion, France itself would send troops to aid Mobutu (as would Belgium).
Relations remained cordial throughout the remainder of the Cold War and, even after Belgium and the United States terminated all but humanitarian aid to Zaire, Franco-Zairian relations remained cordial, although France did join other Western countries in pressuring Mobutu to implement democratic reforms. In the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide, and the subsequent exodus of two million Rwandan Hutus to eastern Zaire, France pressed for international aid to Mobutu, believing him to be the only one capable of bringing a solution to the refugee crisis. Later, during the First Congo War, France repeatedly agitated for military intervention to save the Mobutu regime; however, unable to intervene directly, French intelligence arranged for 300 Serbian mercenaries to be brought to Zaire to train the FAZ; when this failed, France pulled some strings and successfully arranged for a pan-African "peacekeeping" force comprised of troops from pro-Mobutu countries to come to Mobutu's rescue. This force successfully managed, albeit with considerable difficulty, to repulse the Uganda and Rwanda-backed invasion staged by Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
Mobutu continues to meet with high-ranking French leaders; in 1996, he met then-prime minister Jacques Chirac during what was officially a private visit to France. Although France has been less hesitant to criticize Mobutu's human rights abuses than in the past, relations still remain warm, and France remains a major donor of foreign aid to Zaire.
