ZIPRA (Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army)*
*
ZIPRA was a guerrilla army created by the Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union (headed by Joshua Nkomo).  ZIPRA was Pro-Soviet Marxist in orientation. It was poor at guerrilla operations and the goal was to mount a conventional war.  However, ZIPRA was not particularly well trained or motivated.*
*
ZIPRA was united briefly with ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) in an organization called the Patriotic Forces (PF).  But ZIPRA and ZANLA fought amongst themselves almost as much as they did against the Rhodesian & Rhodesian-allied forces.*
*
ZIPRA recruited almost exclusively from the Matabele (Ndebele) people although  they claimed to be nontribal and nonracial. ZIPRA got its weapons and other supplies through Zambia, through Angola (after 1974), and ultimately from Cuba, East Germany and the USSR.*
*
The Soviets and Cuba gave ZIPRA APCs, artillery and tanks.  The Soviet Union also provided some MiG-17s, and possibly some MiG-21s, (in airbases in Zambia), though the ZIPRA forces were never fully trained to operate them.  Cuban pilots, however, were probably on call should the occassion have arisen that the use of aircraft was needed.  Botswana and Zambia provided bases and sanctuary for ZIPRA, though in Botswana the ZIPRA weren't supposed to carry weapons because Botswana feared retaliation from Rhodesia and South Africa.*
*
Additional training and arms came from Algeria, Egypt, Rumania, Tanzania and Yugoslavia.*