The news comes as President Mnangagwa yesterday made a whistle visit to Chimoio in Mozambique. In a meeting with his Mozambique counterpart Filipe Nyusi, President Mnangagwa discussed among other issues the security situation in the region north of Mozambique due to the Islamic terrorists.

MOZAMBICAN news agencies report that South Africa Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) helicopters working with the Mozambique army have liberated the Metuge district in Mozambique which had been captured by the Islamic terrorists.

DAG is owned by former Zimbabwean military Colonel Lionel Dyck who is a close ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Reports indicate that on 28 April the insurgents burnt at least 20 houses and killed 15 head of livestock before the security forces supported by South African private military contractors (PMCs) arrived at the scene and that insurgents fled the area after brief clashes.

Multiple military vehicles and helicopters were reported to be present in the area.

Islamic insurgents and those belonging to a Renamo splinter group have been giving Mozambican government a hard time.

Veteran journalist Brezhnev Malaba, a former editor of the Sunday Mail in Zimbabwe, wrote on Twitter: “Colonel Lionel Dyck, a former Rhodesian army officer, was engaged by the Mozambican govt as a private military contractor. He’s the head of a mercenary outfit.

“This week, his helicopter gunships were decisive in pushing back Islamist insurgents in Metuge district. Fighting rages on.”

The news comes as President Mnangagwa yesterday made a whistle visit to Chimoio in Mozambique. In a meeting with his Mozambique counterpart Filipe Nyusi, President Mnangagwa discussed among other issues the security situation in the region north of Mozambique due to the Islamic terrorists.

On Wednesday another village called  Arimba was burnt  and insurgents stole food and livestock and had a feast. The attack was reportedly done by 16-20 men on 6-7 motorcycles

Unconfirmed reports say the insurgents were said Thursday morning to have raided two other coastal villages.

A group was said to be moving south on an old dirt road toward Namau, Namavi, and Sessoane villages, 10 km south of Arimba and in the Metuge district, and were said to have arrived at mid-day.

Dyck is not new to putting down uprisings, as he led the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) in February 1981 as part of the Zimbabwe National Army to quash an uprising by Zipra rebels in Entumbane, Bulawayo, who were fighting against the Zimbabwean government.

Dyck, aassisted by Mike Shute and Mick McKenna, we’re dispatched by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe in February 1981 to put down an uprising as well-trained Zipra renegades threatened to overrun the city of Bulawayo.

The 1981 Entumbane uprising, became also known as the Battle of Bulawayo or Entumbane II, and occurred between 8 and 12 February 1981, after which days Dyck’s team killed an estimated 260 guerrillas while his unit suffered no casualty.

The irony of it was that Mugabe and ZANU–PF were saved from a major rebellion by white-led ex-Rhodesian troops, as their own Zanla army units were then not property trained in open warfare but were good on guerilla ambush battles.

The battle was the RAR’s last; its personnel were reassigned to other units when it was disbanded later in 1981.

Since Mnangagwa was the State Security Minister that time, Dyck and Mnangagwa formed a relationship which later on spilled into business interests.

But it is not only Mnangagwa who is friends with the DAG frontman, Col Dyck.

The Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa relies on an elite team of Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) which is proving its mettle in fighting poaching in the Greater Lebombo Conservancy (GLC).

Reports say Sean van Niekerk, who leads one of the DAG units, and his hand-picked team of specialists and rangers, have not lost one rhino since February this year.

The image above shows one of the four conservancies of the GLC is the Sabie Game Reserve (SGR).

Here the DAG team is so trusted by the KNP anti-poaching experts, that fences have been dropped on the almost 40-kilometre border between KNP and SGR.

Sabie Game Reserve is part of the Greater Lebombo Conservancy.

DAG has a well-designed anti-poaching strategy in place.