Zimbabwe: Government denies sending troops to Mozambique

Zimbabwe’s government has denied reports that it deployed troops to help fight Islamic insurgents in northern Mozambique without the consent of parliament. 

The claims have circulated on Twitter lately, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF government coming under fire for allegedly circumventing the constitution.

Journalist Hopewell Chinono posted: “by law Mnangagwa should inform Parliament, it can reject and recall them or simply give a nod and a wink”. 

Former education minister Jonathan Moyo criticised the government for deploying the country’s ill-equipped Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) against hardened jihadists.

“You would have to be a blithering ediot [sic] or an unemployable third grade lawyer to rate the combat preparedness of #ZDF against an ISIS insurgency, that has overwhelmed the Mozambique army…,” he tweeted.

An Islamist insurgency has been simmering in northern Mozambique for the past two years, with a local jihadist group known as al-Shabab (but with no connection to the Somali group of the same name) carrying out a string of deadly attacks. 

The group, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, regularly ambushes army patrols on isolated roads and has forced approximately 200,000 people to flee from their homes.

There is little indication of the group’s motive, leadership, or demands. 

Photo: AFP