[1] The brigade was based in Gweru and participated in the Mozambican Civil War[2] as well as a genocide known as the Gukurahundi which targeted Ndebele civilians and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrillas.

[1] By 1981, the bulk of the ZNA's manpower was concentrated in thirty-seven new light infantry battalions composed of about 37,000 personnel, almost all of whom were former ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas.

[6] In the wake of escalating dissident activity, Mugabe announced his intention to form a fifth infantry brigade composed solely of ex-ZANLA troops.

[2] Ex-ZIPRA and Rhodesian troops resented the brigade for its apparent exclusiveness and the fact that it was permitted to operate independently from the ZNA's normal command structure, being subordinate only to the Chief of the Army.

[1] The 5th Brigade was trained from August 1981, when the first North Korean military advisers arrived in Zimbabwe,[8] to June 1982 at Inyanga, an isolated mountain base near the Zimbabwean-Mozambican border.

[10] In mid-1982 the brigade was deployed to defend a strategic rail line from Beira to the Zimbabwean border from sabotage attempts by the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO).

[9] While the brigade's directives specified a search for ex-ZIPRA guerrillas, it failed to differentiate between those affiliated with ZIPRA and the same movement's political wing, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU).

[9] The 5th Brigade's commander, Perrance Shiri, perceived all ex-ZIPRA troops, including those employed in the civil service or the ZNA, as potential dissidents.

[9] The 5th Brigade imposed a curfew in Matabeleland North, banned the movement of civilians within the operational area, and closed the majority of local businesses.

[9] In an attempt to isolate the civilian population from the dissidents, the brigade relocated a number of rural dwellers to police outposts, mining compounds, and old Rhodesian military bases repurposed into makeshift detention camps.

[9] Zimbabwean Minister of Home Affairs and chief opposition figure Joshua Nkomo denounced the formation of the 5th Brigade as being politically motivated; he believed Mugabe was using the unit to intimidate his opponents and secure the forcible implementation of a de facto one-party state.

[3] Another historian and noted sociologist, Ronald Weitzer, found that the 5th Brigade was perceived as being "highly politicised and loyal to the government, poorly led, and palpably anti-Ndebele".