[3 Pics] The Secret history of southern Africa: The Soviet Union's troops & weapons in Mozambique

[This is one of the old but important stories from the original AfricanCrisis website that I am converting on to the new site, in the new format.

Nowadays, there are Russian soldiers who openly admit, and even have a website in Russian, where they discuss how they came and fought in Africa. They came to Angola on a large scale, but few realise that, on a smaller scale, they also came to Mozambique. Jan]

The Russians in Mozambique

The Russians and Chinese have a keen interest in Africa. The Russians were more active here than anyoneelse. More than 75% of all weaponry in Africa, comes directly from Russia. Russia is a big player (behind thescenes), to this day. When Robert Mugabe felt threatened in 2000, he ordered 21,000 AK47's directly fromRussia. They were flown in immediately on a Russian cargo plane. Then he placed an order for $73 million worthof arms from China. He ordered anti-personnel weapons, including grenade launchers and even tanks. This is avery large order for an African country. Captured Russian weapons in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe Soviet supplied 23mm Ack Ack gun captured by Rhodesian forces from Mugabe's forces in Mozambique Soviet supplied 7.62 Dragonov sniper rifles captured by Rhodesian forces from Mugabe's forces in Mozambique Soviet supplied 12.7mm heavy machine gun. Note these devastated trenches in one of Mugabe's bases in Mozambiqueafter a Rhodesian raid. Most warfare in southern Africa wasguerilla warfare. However, the Marxist Liberators had properly planned and defended bases in neighbouringcountries. Their defences were often designed by Russian officers. Sometimes Russian documents were found in these camps. Captured prisoners would testify to the presence of Russian Army officers who would cometo inspect the camps from time to time. Often the Rhodesian Army captured hundreds and even thousands of tons of weaponry on raids, but there wasso much that they could only bring back a small portion with them. The rest was blown up.

Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of: Government by Deception

      

---

There are no Readers' Comments for this article