Summary

Non-signatory Zimbabwe has shown interest in the convention but it it has not taken any steps to join it. Zimbabwe last participated in a meeting of the convention in September 2019. It abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

Zimbabwe exported and imported cluster munitions in the past, but it is not clear if it ever used them. Prior to 1980, the defense industries of the country–then known as Rhodesia–developed and produced cluster bombs. Zimbabwe is believed to possess cluster munitions, but there is no information regarding the types and quantities stockpiled.

Policy

The Republic of Zimbabwe has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Zimbabwe has shown interest in the convention and told States Parties in September 2019 that “internal processes are underway” for its “possible” accession to the convention. At the time, Zimbabwe said it had not joined largely due to reduced “logistical and technical capacity mainly due to political, economic and social challenges.”[1]

Zimbabwe participated in two regional meetings during the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, where it expressed support for a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[2] However, Zimbabwe was absent from the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and the Oslo signing conference in December 2008.

Zimbabwe has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.[3] It was invited to but did not attend the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

Zimbabwe abstained from voting on the key UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 75/62 in December 2020, which urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to join “as soon as possible.”[4] Zimbabwe also abstained from the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention in 2019, after voting against it in 2015–2018.

Zimbabwe is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

It is unclear if Zimbabwe has ever used cluster munitions.[5]

Jane’s Information Group has reported that the Alpha bomblet developed for the South African CB-470 cluster bomb was produced in Rhodesia and that “Zimbabwe may have quantities of the Alpha bomblet.”[6] State Parties to the convention have provided additional information on their stocks of Alpha bomblets, including Chile and Peru.

Zimbabwe is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions since it gained full independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, but it likely possesses a stockpile. In 2010, an official informed the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that Zimbabwe still possessed cluster munitions that were in the former-Rhodesia’s arsenal.[7]

Brazil transferred 104 BLG-250K and four BLG-60K cluster bombs and various components for BLG-500K, BLG-250K, and BLG-60K cluster bombs to Zimbabwe between January 2001 and May 2002, according to a Brazilian media article reviewing declassified Ministry of Defense documents.[8]

Zimbabwe may have transferred Chilean-manufactured cluster munitions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in or after July 2013 according to a copy of an official shipping document.[9] The DRC signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in March 2009 but has not ratified. As a signatory, the DRC has committed not to take any action that runs contrary to the object and purpose of the convention such as importing or otherwise receiving cluster munitions.

Zimbabwe also possesses RM-70 and BM-21 122mm surface-to-surface rocket systems, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[10]