Jackson Advocate

New Military Build-Up In Katanga Seen

Ndola, Northern Rhodesia Rumors of a new military build-up in neighboring Katanga are sweeping this Northern Rhodesia border area.

According to unconfirmed but persistent reports, new groups of white instructors are being smuggled from Rhodesia into Katanga.

Officially, the authorities deny any knowledge of an organized traffic of white mercenaries into Katanga. They point out that such traffic would be difficult to control, in a country which has no particular restrictions on travel.

In recent weeks this Northern Rhodesia outpost has been full of men traveling back and forth

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between Katanga. Some are newsmen, some are refugees, and some do not hide that they served at one time or another in the Katanga Army.

Last week two former French paratroop captains, known to some newsmen from Algeria, showed up in Ndola's Savoy Hotel. One returned to Elisabethville the following day, the other said he had "an important mission elsewhere."

There were 65 men on an Elisabethville-bound train which stopped here earlier this week. They said they were "recruits" for the Katanga copper mines.

Some Rhodesian officials smiled when they heard the explanation.

There are no outward signs of any organized recruiting for the Katanga Army in this part of Rhodesia. If there is any local recruiting at all, it is conducted without publicity among men "in the know."

Most men heading north to Katanga appear to be French-speaking but not necessarily Belgian. But there are also Anglo-Saxons who brag of their connections with the Katanga Army.