Katangese Gendarmerie

Katangese Armed Forces
Forces Armées Katangaises
Member of the Gendarmerie in 1961
Founded	11 July 1960
Disbanded	21 January 1963 (remnants reconstituted as the FLNC)
Service branches	Katangese Army Katangese Air Force
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	President Moïse Tshombe
Secretary of State of National Defense	Joseph Yav
Commander	Jean-Marie Crèvecoeur (1st) Norbert Muké Ferdinand Tshipola
Personnel
Active personnel	14,000–17,000 (1963)
Related articles
History	Congo Crisis

The Katangese Gendarmerie (French: Gendarmerie Katangaise), officially the Katangese Armed Forces (French: Forces Armées Katangaises), was the paramilitary force of the unrecognized State of Katanga in Central Africa from 1960 to 1963. The forces were formed upon the secession of Katanga from the Republic of the Congo with help from Belgian soldiers and former officers of the Force Publique. Belgian troops also provided much of the early training for the Gendarmerie, which was mainly composed of Katangese but largely led by Belgians and later European mercenaries.

Throughout the existence of the State of Katanga, the gendarmes sporadically fought various tribes and the Congolese National Army (ANC). In February 1961 the Gendarmerie initiated a series of operations aimed at suppressing anti-secessionist rebels of the Association Générale des Baluba du Katanga (BALUBAKAT) in North Katanga. The campaign was largely successful, but the fighting led to atrocities and gendarmes were halted by forces of the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) during the Battle of Kabalo in April 1961. ONUC then initiated efforts to remove foreign mercenaries from the Gendarmerie, and launched Operation Rum Punch to arrest them in August 1961. They came into conflict with ONUC three times afterwards, in Operation Morthor (September 1961), Operation UNOKAT (December 1961), and Operation Grandslam (December 1962). Operation Grandslam marked the end of the Katangese secession in January 1963.

After the secession, many gendarmes returned to civilian life or were integrated into the ANC. However, around 8,000 refused to do so, and many of these kept their arms and roamed North Rhodesia, Angola and Katanga. Many crossed the Congo border into Angola, where Portuguese colonial authorities assisted and trained them. They were involved in several mutinies and attempted invasions of the Congo, most notably the Stanleyville mutinies in 1966 and 1967.

After 1967, around 2,500 gendarmes were present in Angola, where they were reorganized as the Congolese National Liberation Front (FLNC) and fought in the Angolan War of Independence on the side of the Portuguese government against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). When the war ended in 1975, they fought in the Angolan Civil War against the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The FLNC was involved in the Shaba I and II attempted invasions of Katanga. Split into factions after the war, the tigres emerged and played a decisive role in the First Congo War. There has since been little gendarme presence, but they have emerged as a symbol of secessionist thinking.