Procurement: Disarming Zimbabwe

Archives

April 21,2008: Zimbabwe has bought a supply of ammunition from China. The shipment includes 3.5 million rounds of ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles and pistols 1500 RPG rockets, and 2,500 mortar shells (60mm and 81mm). Zimbabwe is the most repressive, corrupt and inefficient government in Africa, but is not under any arms embargo. So the shipment of arms recently arrived at a South African port, and the government said it would be allowed to move by truck to land-locked Zimbabwe. There, the ammo was likely to be used to overturn the results of the recent national elections, which voted out the current government. However, the port workers in South Africa refused to unload the ammo shipment, and South African police refused to fill in for the dock workers. A judge ruled that the ammo could not be moved through South Africa to Zimbabwe. So the Chinese ship went on its way, with the cargo containers of ammo still on board.

X

ad

Help keep us a float!

Your support helps us keep our ship a float. We appreciate anyway you chose to help out. Visit us daily, subscribe, donate, and tell your friends.

You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  2. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
  3. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on X.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close