Both aerial reconnaissance and captured guerrillas had confirmed that the camp contained a large hospital, and approximately 5,000 people, including ZANLA personnel or recruits in training.

[5] The success of the "Flying-Column Attack" during the Mapai raid served as the basis for the tactics devised for a strike against the ZANLA forces at Nyadzonya.

On 5 August 1976, a group of 60 ZANLA guerrillas entered Rhodesia from Mozambique and attacked a military base at Ruda, near Umtali.

[1] Operation Eland was hatched, and involved a cross-border raid by 84 Selous Scouts under Captain Rob Warraker against a concentration of guerrillas located at a training camp on the Nyadzonya River, 40 kilometres (25 mi) away in Mozambique.

[1] The bridge over the Pungwe River was a key strategic point that the assault team had to fight their way through on their return journey to Rhodesia.

As they laid the charges under the bridge, they fired at an approaching car, killing a Catholic priest and a boy, while badly injuring a Cluny sister and the vicar-general of the Diocese of Tete, Father Domingos Ferrão.

[7] ZANLA and Amnesty International claimed that the base was a refugee camp, and that the assault was the worst atrocity of the war.

The South African Prime Minister John Vorster had warned his Rhodesian counterpart Ian Smith against expanding the conflict.

This led to the loss of half the Rhodesian Air Force's helicopter pilots as well as maintenance personnel and liaison officers.