Operation Marion thus became an important element of the Apartheid government of South Africa's response to the rising Umkhonto we Sizwe insurgency during the 1980s, where a Zulu militia was trained by SADF Special Forces at one of their many camps in the Caprivi Strip in 1985. The first group of Zulu militia from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were despatched to the Caprivi Strip from Durban by Hercules C-130 aircraft on 16 April 1986.