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Walter Mswazie, Masvingo Correspondent
MEMBERS of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) have been doing a good job in restoring peace in trouble spots within the Sadc region and beyond, a senior army officer has said.
Addressing commissioned army officers during a peace support operations seminar at the 4 Infantry Brigade headquarters in Masvingo on Tuesday, Chief of Staff, Quarter Master Staff Major General Sibusiso Moyo hailed the defence forces for the role they have been playing in international peace keeping missions.
“The Zimbabwe Defence Forces has done a good job while on international peace keeping missions in Somalia, Angola, and Ivory Coast among others missions under the United Nations and African Union,” said Maj Gen Moyo.
He said some peace operations take long before they are accomplished due to their complex nature.
“By nature peace support operations are not a preserve of the army but unfortunately it is only the army that can restore peace in a volatile situation. The reasons why some peace operations take long, is that they are complex in nature. They call for multi-disciplinary components,” he said.
Maj Gen Moyo said most countries experiencing conflicts are characterised by uncertainty as the population will be angry.
“The most difficult peace keeping mission that we took part in as ZDF was in Somalia. It was code- named Somalia Mission Impossible as it involved extreme situations that we had to make a vigilant response due to its gravity,” he said.
“There was a lot of uncertainty as its population was angry to the situation. This training should be taken as a practical case study that invokes debate at your level of leadership,” he said.
@walterbmswazie3
Bongani Ndlovu
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