Mozambique–Zimbabwe border
A border from the Zambezi to the Limpopo that climbs over the eastern highlands of the Inyanga and Chimanimani mountains. Its central stretch was drawn by an Italian arbitrator in 1897. In 2019 Cyclone Idai tore across it from the coast at Beira, killing hundreds on both sides.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Mozambique →Zimbabwe →
The Manica award
Portugal had held a post on the Mozambican coast since 1505, while Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company pushed into the interior from 1889. An Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 11 June 1891 drew the line, part of it along the upper eastern slope of the Manica plateau. The two countries could not agree on that sector, and in 1897 an Italian judge, Paul Honoré Vigliani, settled it by arbitration. The border crosses escarpments and peaks including the Inyanga and Chimanimani mountains.[1]
Cyclone Idai
Cyclone Idai made landfall near the Mozambican port of Beira on the night of 14 March 2019, then swept inland into Zimbabwe. By April Mozambique had reported 602 deaths and Zimbabwe 344, with more than two million people affected, and the UN called it one of the deadliest storms on record in the southern hemisphere. Zimbabwe said it would send pathologists to Mozambique to help identify the dead.[2]
“one of the deadliest storms on record in the southern hemisphere”[2]
Timeline
189111 June 1891
Anglo-Portuguese treaty
The line between the Zambezi and Limpopo is drawn.[1]
189730 January 1897
Manica award
An Italian arbitrator settles the disputed sector.[1]
196511 November 1965
Rhodesian UDI
Southern Rhodesia declares independence unilaterally.[1]
201914 March 2019
Cyclone Idai
The storm crosses from Beira into Zimbabwe.[2]
More borders
Sources
- [1]International Boundary Study No. 118: Mozambique – Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) Boundary · US Department of State, Office of the Geographer · 1 November 1971
- [2]Death toll from devastating Cyclone Idai rises above 1,000 · Al Jazeera (news agencies) · 10 April 2019
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.