The Battle of Jadotville

It began like the Montagues and the Capulets. He was a Lunda boy who wanted to marry a Baluba girl, but the two tribes were ancient blood foes. Last week, in the Katanga town of Jadotville, their love affair resulted in a savage orgy of killing unlike any ever seen on the streets of Verona.

Bands of Lunda natives, armed with knives, machetes, and razor-sharp bicycle chains lashed to sticks, stormed through the streets looking for Baluba youths wearing monkey fur headpieces and animal-skin war dresses. Both sides chased terrified police out of native quarters, brushed aside the pleas of Katanga's President Moise Tshombe when he arrived in the city begging for the carnage to stop.

As the slaughter raged unchecked, white children were evacuated from the city to a nearby Methodist mission. From neighboring Northern Rhodesia, blood was flown in to meet the needs of the Jadotville hospital, where doctors and nurses worked nonstop for more than 48 hours trying to patch up a steady stream of wounded and dying. Many victims were maimed beyond recognition. "A doctor lifted a bandage off one man's head," said a witness. "A large piece had been sliced out of his skull like a slice from an orange, and I could see his brain pulsating."

After four days of bloodshed, the rioting finally petered out, and cautious United Nations troops, who had not dared intervene while the fighting was at its height, moved in and totted up the frightful cost. The toll: at least 70 dead, and scores injured.