Zimbabwe plans to dispatch 304 soldiers to join the Southern African Development Community Standby Force in Mozambique that’s helping to fight a terrorist insurgency that’s left more than 3 000 people dead and halted Africa’s biggest private investment yet.

Once the necessary documentation has been signed they will join a SADC force made up of troops contributed by other states in the 16-member bloc, Defense Minister Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri said Thursday in the capital, Harare.

Botswana and South Africa are among SADC members that have sent forces to fight, as has Rwanda, which is not part of the bloc.

Mozambique up until this month resisted allowing foreign armies to help battle a near four-year-old insurgency in the northern Cabo Delgado province. That’s even as the extremist rebels seized key towns putting at risk gas projects that the country is banking on to transform its economy and caused almost 800 000 people to flee their homes.

Landlocked Zimbabwe is reliant on the neighbouring state’s ports for its imports and exports and has a long history of involvement in Mozambique. The guerrilla army affiliated to its ruling party used the country as a base from which to launch attacks on then White-ruled Rhodesia in a 1970s liberation war. In the 1980s and 1990s, Zimbabwean troops intervened to quell a rebellion by militants affiliated to Mozambique’s opposition Renamo party.

19 November 2017. Thousands of people thronged the city of Harare to participate in the historic march to State House to get rid of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe who has been in power since independence in 1980. The march was preceded by a massive rally by all citizens which have been organized by the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association led by Comrades Chris Mutsvangwa, Victor Matemadanda and Douglas Mahiya. Outside State House, the official residence, some people staged a sit-down protest in front of a line of troops. At the same time political parties, human rights organisations and citizens yesterday hailed the Zimbabwe Defence Force for guaranteeing safety of the people as they steeped in to restore sanity in Government. Picture:Moeletsi Mabe/Sunday Time

Sources: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-29/zimbabwe-to-dispatch-troops-to-help-mozambique-fight-insurgency

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