The missionaries belonged to the Elim Pentecostal Mission based in the Vumba mountains near the Mozambican border in Rhodesia.

The guerrillas separated White missionaries and their relatives from the rest of the camp and axed, battered or bayoneted them to death.

Black teachers and students were told that "some White staff have been arrested" and ordered not to report the incident to the authorities.

[3][2] The site of the massacre, the former Eagle School buildings which were used by the Elim Mission, were subsequently taken over by the ZANU–PF and used as a training camp, while access was restricted for others.

[4] According to a 2017 The Sunday Telegraph report, government cables indicated that the British Prime Minister James Callaghan received credible information that Robert Mugabe's forces were behind the massacre, but they decided to ignore the issue to avoid disrupting the on-going peace talks.