On the 23 November 2016, the Government of the Republic of Mozambique and the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe, through their respective embassies, sent a joint request to the African Union Commission (AUC) seeking support in the reaffirmation and demarcation of their common boundary that covers a stretch of 1134km. In response to this request, the African Union Border Program (AUBP) assembled a team comprised of African experts with experience in International Boundary Making Processes, to conduct an assessment of the technical capacities in the respective government institutions to reaffirm their common boundary.
Following this assessment, the AUBP organised the Joint Technical Committee Meeting between the Republic Of Mozambique and the Republic Of Zimbabwe which is held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 04-06 December 2018 to review the findings of the assessment missions and to share expert knowledge on best practices in boundary delimitation and demarcation processes to help chart the best way forward. In addition, the Joint Meeting further aims to identify the advantages and gaps existing in each country and to see how by working together with good spirit of cooperation the negativities is minimised.
The Joint Meeting is attended by the foreign Mozambican and Zimbabwean Embassy representatives in Ethiopia, their country specific border programme representatives as well as experts in the field of conflict prevention and border demarcation.
By the end of the three day Joint Meeting, the Joint Technical Committee with the assistance of AUBP expects to have formulated a road map that will enable the two governments to resume joint activities towards the reaffirmation exercise; to share lessons learnt on the challenges of the nature of African Borders and how these can be managed, as well as formulate a joint budget and work plan for the reaffirmation, and finally to identify new and innovative ways in which the AUC can support and assist the two parties to execute and accomplish this exercise successfully.
