Truckers Face Constant Threat of Attack as They Ply Malawi’s Economic Lifeline

Nightfall at Mwanza on Malawi’s western border with Mozambique is accompanied by the roar of 40-ton trucks pulling away from the bustling immigration and customs office.

They park on the Mozambique side. The drivers drink beer and sleep in the cabs of their trucks to wait for the next day’s convoy across Mozambique to the border with Zimbabwe.

This road through Tete province is the economic lifeline for landlocked Malawi, which pays a heavy price in foreign currency to the Zimbabwean army to protect the route from attacks by rebels of the Mozambique National Resistance, or Renamo.

Since Malawi lost its traditional railway routes to the Indian Ocean ports of Beira and Nacala due to sabotage by Renamo, which is fighting to overthrow the Mozambican government, the Tete road corridor has carried the bulk of the country’s exports and imports.

Last year, this road and the only other, much longer, road route south through Zambia carried more than 90% of Malawi’s trade.

As the sun rises over the Mozambican border town of Zobue, one by one the trucks begin to roar into life and, under instructions from the Zimbabwean convoy commander, to move off for the 2 1/2-hour trip to the midway town of Tete.

The first 12 to 20 miles is considered safe, since the road runs along the Malawian border. But after that, as one Zimbabwean officer said, “There’s nothing but bush, animals and bandits.”

In most convoys there are 60 to 70 vehicles, mostly container trucks, stretching over a distance of about 3 miles. From Malawi they carry tobacco, tea, sugar and other Malawian exports.

About every 10 vehicles, an armored personnel carrier containing about 10 soldiers armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers follows.

The signs of rebel attacks are numerous. In many places, a band of roadway 2 to 3 yards wide has been dug up. The shallow holes show where rebels had placed land mines that had subsequently been removed by the army.

In several places the burned-out, rusting hulk of a truck lay beside the road as further evidence of a past ambush.

For security reasons, army officers will not give any details of incidents on the route. But now that the rains have come and the roadside vegetation is thickening, rebel attacks are more likely.

“It’s been fairly quiet so far this year,” said the general manager of one Malawi-based transport company, “but it’s only a matter of time before we have a serious incident.”

If there is an attack, the whole convoy stops. Zimbabwean soldiers return fire and pursue the rebels. Drivers climb out of their vehicles and hide underneath them until the firing stops.

When the convoy from Malawi reaches Tete, it waits just outside the town for the convoy from the Zimbabwean border to arrive.

Once the convoy from Zimbabwe arrives, the army escort turns around to accompany the trucks from Malawi to Nyamapanda on the Zimbabwean border.

They arrive at dusk, and many drivers stay overnight at the border and wait for the clear run early the next morning to Harare.

They unload Malawi’s exports, load up with goods for import and head back once again to the border to wait for the nerve-wracking journey back to Malawi.