Zambian Defence Force
[5] The Zambian Defence Force had its roots in the Northern Rhodesia Regiment, a multi-ethnic military unit which was raised by the British colonial government and had served with distinction during World War II.
[6] When the federation was dissolved three years later, the assets and personnel of its armed forces were integrated with those of its successor states, including Northern Rhodesia, which subsequently gained independence as Zambia.
[8] Reports that Rhodesian security forces had occupied Kariba Dam prompted Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda to mobilise the ZDF for the first time and deploy troops to the border.
[10] In November 1966, Rhodesian troops fired across the border and killed a Zambian woman on the north bank of the Zambezi River.
[10] Tensions flared again when Zambian troops fired across the border and killed two Canadian tourists on the Rhodesian side of Victoria Falls in May 1973.
[10] After 1967 Kaunda's government began replacing them with foreign officers on contract, ostensibly to minimise the potential for conflicts of loyalty.
[12] Around September 1967, Kaunda made two requests to the United States for equipment for the Zambian Army, including long-range missile systems, but was rebuffed.
[7] During the 1970s, Zambia began providing sanctuary for a number of revolutionary and militant political movements dedicated to overthrowing colonial and white minority rule elsewhere on the African continent.
[14] These movements ultimately embroiled the ZDF in their own internal power struggles[15] as well as direct clashes with foreign troops carrying out preemptive strikes.
[15] In response to Zambia's increasingly open support for PLAN, South Africa sponsored a force of Kaonde-speaking dissidents under Adamson Mushala, known as the Zambian Democratic Supreme Council (DSC).
[19] As a result of the new challenges posed by the Mushala insurgency and the presence of foreign militants, the ZDF underwent an extensive reorganisation and adopted a new unified command structure.
[24] The reasons for the attack were disputed but the Zambian government maintained that the troops involved had been deliberately provoked by Rhodesian forces into firing.
[27] Growing Zambian war weariness was a significant factor in Kaunda's influencing the guerrilla movements in Rhodesia to seek peace, resulting in a negotiated end to that conflict.
[13] The plot involved arming the FLNC with ZNDF weaponry and later providing that movement with rear operating bases in Zambia as a reward for their efforts if the coup succeeded.
[13] The ZNDF and the police apprehended the conspirators before they had opportunity to set the coup in motion and later raided the FLNC's base camp, detaining most of the insurgents.
[13] Due in part to the extreme secrecy surrounding the ZNDF's budget and the refusal of the UNIP to allow parliamentary debate on the topic, a number of problems concerning military funding were covered up rather than addressed.
[23] In November 1982, the ZNDF killed Adamson Mushala in an ambush outside Solwezi, although his followers continued to carry out operations under the leadership of Alexander Saimbwende.
[19] The DSC continued to pose a sufficient threat that an Italian mineral survey team had to be evacuated from Northwestern Province in 1984 after being targeted by the guerrillas.
[30] In 1988, a second coup d'état attempt was planned, this time by Lieutenant General Christian Tembo and at least three other senior army officers.
[35] Kaunda's unpopularity led to demonstrations in support of Luchembe, however, and the same day the president announced he would seek a referendum on democratic multi-party elections.
[34] Kaunda granted a blanket amnesty to his political opponents as he prepared to accept the return of multi-party elections, which would shortly thereafter end his term of almost three decades.
[19] The 1991 general elections brought Frederick Chiluba and his opposition Movement for Multi-Party Democracy to power and ushered in a period of reforms for the ZNDF.
[23] The Chiluba government immediately formed a Public Accounts Committee to reduce financial irregularities in the ZNDF, most of which were linked to corruption and abuse of the ministerial tender system.
The country then reverted to the command system inherited at independence where Service Chiefs report to the Head of State through a Minister of Defence.
Zambian personnel have been fated to be caught up in some of the more dramatic incidents of recent UN Peacekeeping in Africa: witnessing the Kibeho Massacre in Rwanda during April 1995; having large numbers of Zambian peacekeepers taken hostage by rebels in Sierra Leone during 2000;[68] and with troops caught up in fighting between Sudanese and South Sudanese forces in the contested Abyei area during May 2011.
[93] On 4 December 2017 a Zambian police member of the UN mission was reported injured in an attack by anti-Balaka fighters in Bria, northern CAR.
