The United States has urged southern African governments to block a shipment of arms destined for Zimbabwe from being transported overland to the landlocked country.
“We don’t think it’s appropriate at this point, given the political upheaval that’s occurring in Zimbabwe, for anyone to be adding extra tinder to that situation by providing additional weapons to Zimbabwe’s security forces,” State Department spokesperson Tom Casey said in press briefing Tuesday.
“And we’re pleased to see that many countries in the region refused to either accept this vessel in their ports, or to offload those weapons,” Casey added.
The An Yue Jiang, a Chinese vessel carrying military-grade weapons and ammunition, anchored off the South African port of Durban last week but hurriedly left Friday when a court granted a temporary order preventing its cargo from being transported through South Africa to Zimbabwe.
Dockworkers aligned with the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union said they would refuse to unload the weapons and appealed for support from dockworkers in other countries.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) reported Wednesday that the ship was off the South African coastline in international waters on a course that would take it to the Angolan port of Lobito by around midday on Friday.
Angola is a longtime ally of the Zimbabwean government. The South African Cape Times reported on Wednesday that “senior military sources” say Angolan troops are “on standby to fly to the aid of President Robert Mugabe and his beleaguered Zanu-PF should the need arise.”
Sam Dawson, an ITF spokesperson, said in a statement Wednesday that the federation was trying to persuade the ship’s owners, the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) to abort its mission and send it back to China. Additionally, Dawson said, “union preparations continue to block attempts to unload and transport the cargo and any attempt to do so will be met by the strongest possible trade union response.”
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer arrived in the country Wednesday for talks on Zimbabwe with the Pretoria government.
