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Salisbury Woolworths bombing

Coordinates: 17°50′9.3″S 31°2′26.8″E / 17.835917°S 31.040778°E / -17.835917; 31.040778
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Salisbury Woolworths bombing
Part of the Rhodesian Bush War
Location
Coordinates17°50′9.3″S 31°2′26.8″E / 17.835917°S 31.040778°E / -17.835917; 31.040778
Date6 August 1977
Shortly before 12:00 (Central Africa Time)
Attack type
Bombing
Deaths11
Injured76
PerpetratorsZimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA)[1][2][3]
DefendersBritish South Africa Police (BSAP)

On 6 August 1977, during the Rhodesian Bush War, a Woolworths store in Salisbury, Rhodesia (today Harare, Zimbabwe) was bombed by nationalist forces.[1][2][3] Eleven civilians were killed and 76 were injured. Of those killed, eight were black Rhodesians, including two pregnant women and a young boy, and three were whites, members of a single family, Gillian and Donald Mayor and their mother. Mr Mayor and another daughter, Wendy, were seated in a car outside when the bomb went off.[4]

The bomb, comprising about 75 pounds (34 kg) of high explosives, was planted in an area where customers checked packages in before shopping on the upper floor of the two-storey building. It detonated shortly before the crowded store was to close at noon that Saturday.[5] The perpetrators, two teachers, afterwards escaped to Mozambique.[6]

Ian Smith, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, expressed horror at the bombing. "Those who have perpetrated this barbarous outrage can hardly be described as human," he said.[5] Rhodesian black nationalist leaders Bishop Abel Muzorewa and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole also condemned the attack.[4]

References

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Bibliography
  • Abbott, Peter; Botham, Philip (1986). Modern African Wars: Rhodesia, 1965–80. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85045-728-5.
  • Chung, Fay (2006). Re-Living the Second Chimurenga: Memories from Zimbabwe's Liberation Struggle. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute. ISBN 978-9171065513.
  • Cilliers, Jakkie (1984). Counter-Insurgency in Rhodesia. London, Sydney & Dover, New Hampshire: Croom Helm. ISBN 978-0-7099-3412-7.
  • Moorcraft, Paul L; McLaughlin, Peter (2008) [1982]. The Rhodesian War: A Military History. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-84415-694-8.
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