HARARE – Zambian President Hichilema Hakainde on Thursday boycotted a three-nation wildlife conservation summit in Harare in his continuing diplomatic spat with Zimbabwe’s leader Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Hakainde had been expected to attend the signing ceremony of the Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia Tripartite Transfrontier Conservation Area memorandum of agreement but sent his tourism minister instead.
Mnangagwa and Mozambique’s Filipe Nyusi represented their two countries.
Hichilema has called for mediation between Zambia and Zimbabwe after Mnangagwa, unaware his comments would be made public, told Russian President Vladimir Putin on a trip to Moscow in June that posed a security threat to his country through its growing military links with the United States.
“The Americans,” Mnangagwa told Putin, “are consolidating their power in that country (Zambia), both in terms of security and in terms of financial support to make sure that we feel lonely.”
He asked Putin for support “especially in the area of defence and security as well as food security.”
Zambia said Mnangagwa’s comments were “an unwarranted attack on the country’s sovereignty” and called for “urgent and immediate intervention” by regional countries to defuse the tensions.
Mulambo Haimbe, Zambia’s foreign minister, called for regional countries to help “find a lasting solution to the matters in issue through an appropriate mediation process which should result in measurable outcomes.”
“It is in this context that we have sought the regional bodies’ urgent and immediate intervention in relation to the present and any other matters in seeming contention between Zimbabwe and ourselves,” he told the country’s parliament in June.
One platform where the matter could be discussed is the SADC summit in Harare next month, but it remains unclear if Hichilema will attend.
Zimbabwe and Zambia have been locked in a simmering diplomatic tiff since longtime opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema assumed power in 2021, defeating incumbent Edgar Lungu who enjoyed the support of Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF party.
Hichilema was part of an alliance of regional opposition parties which included the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe, and Mnangagwa’s government suspects he has been channelling financial assistance to his rivals.
The row deepened after Zimbabwe’s disputed elections in August 2023 when a SADC election observation mission headed by Zambian national Nevers Mumba concluded that the polls were not held according to regional and international standards on democratic elections, angering Mnangagwa.
