to Angolan rebels and even participated directly in the subsequent Angolan Civil War. The crisis caused the newly independent African states to reconsider their allegiances and internal ties. In particular, it led to the division of African states into factions. Moderate-leaning states joined the Brazzaville Group, which called for a degree of unity between Francophone African states and the maintenance of ties with France. Radical states joined the Casablanca Group which called for a Pan-African federation. The chaotic violence of the crisis and the fate of the country's whites, many of whom entered Northern and Southern Rhodesia as refugees, contributed to the widespread belief among whites there that black nationalist politicians were not ready to govern, and prompted fears that immediate majority rule in Rhodesia might lead to a similar situation. Operation Refugee, a mobilisation of white Rhodesians to assist the displaced Congolese whites, was organised in response to the crisis. After negotiations with Britain repeatedly broke down, Southern Rhodesia's predominantly white government declared independence unilaterally in 1965. It also drove European expatriates in the Central African Republic to support the increasing authoritarianism of David Dacko's regime as a means of protecting their interests. The disorder of Congolese independence was frequently invoked in diplomatic discussions of Sub-Saharan Africa throughout the remainder of the 1960s. The Katangese secession would prove to be politically influential in Africa. During the Chadian Civil War between 1965 and 1979, the Front de Libération Nationale du Tchad (FROLINAT) explicitly rejected secessionism in its bid to remove the southern-backed government of François Tombalbaye following the experience of the Katanga secession, officially stating that "there will be no Katanga in Chad". In the Nigerian Civil War, between 1967 and 1970, the ethnically Igbo region of Biafra seceded from Nigeria, which it accused of privileging the interests of northern ethnic groups and discriminating against the Igbo. The secessions of Biafra and Katanga have frequently been compared in academic writing. Unlike Katanga, Biafra achieved limited official international recognition and rejected the support of Western multinational companies involved in the local oil industry. Biafra was defeated in 1970 and re-integrated into Nigeria. See also First Congo War (1996–1997) History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo "Indépendance Cha Cha" – a 1960 song by Le Grand Kallé commemorating Congolese independence The Poisonwood Bible (1998) – a novel by Barbara Kingsolver set during the crisis Second Congo War (1998–2003) Wind of Change