{"id":868805,"date":"2026-06-15T11:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/868805\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:58:25","slug":"zimbabwes-climate-migrants-fear-eviction-as-crackdown-intensifies-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/868805\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe\u2019s climate migrants fear eviction as crackdown intensifies | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mutare, Zimbabwe<\/strong> \u2013 New homesteads cling to the slopes of Zimbabwe\u2019s Eastern Highlands, a fertile mountain region that has become a destination for people fleeing drought-stricken parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Many arrived hoping to rebuild their lives on land where crops can still grow. Now they fear they could be forced out as the government intensifies a crackdown on illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

Known officially as \u201cillegal settlers\u201d and sometimes derisively as \u201csquatters\u201d, many say they moved here because increasingly erratic rainfall and recurring droughts had made farming difficult in their home areas.<\/p>\n

Stretching about 320 km from Nyanga to Chipinge district along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border, the Eastern Highlands remain one of Zimbabwe\u2019s most fertile regions.<\/p>\n

With reliable rainfall, rich soils and an abundance of perennial rivers, the area has become a magnet for thousands of people fleeing increasingly harsh climatic conditions in Zimbabwe\u2019s dry lowlands.<\/p>\n

A harvest of hope<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here 18 years ago and have been living here ever since. We don\u2019t have anywhere else to go,\u201d Lloyd Gweshengwe, a migrant living in the Eastern Highlands, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

This farming season brought him hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very good maize harvest. I\u2019m expecting several bags of maize, enough to feed my family for the whole year. I will sell the surplus,\u201d said the 43-year-old as he stood beside stacks of harvested maize.<\/p>\n

But that sense of food security may not last long.<\/p>\n

Government tightens enforcement<\/p>\n

At a stakeholder meeting last month in Mutare, Zimbabwe\u2019s Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Misheck Mugadza, announced a tougher stance on illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

He said he had directed the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the National Prosecuting Authority to intensify arrests and prosecutions of traditional leaders, middlemen and government officials implicated in unlawful land allocations.<\/p>\n

\"AA home for climate migrants in Zimbabwe\u2019s Eastern Highlands [Andrew Mambondiyani\/Al Jazeera] (Restricted Use)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is zero tolerance for corruption,\u201d Mugadza told the meeting. \u201cThe Environmental Management Agency must enforce Environmental Impact Assessment requirements and environmental protection laws in ecologically sensitive areas. Wetlands, riverbanks and forests are not for sale. Traditional leaders must operate strictly within the Traditional Leaders Act and report illegal activities to the relevant authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government says the exercise is necessary to restore order in land administration, curb corruption and protect the environment from degradation caused by unplanned settlements.<\/p>\n

Climate pressure behind migration<\/p>\n

On the ground in Manicaland province, the situation is more complex. Many families facing possible eviction say their relocation was not driven by land speculation, but by worsening climate conditions that have made farming increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n

Gweshengwe grew up in Village C in Gutaurare, a parched part of Mutare district that no longer sustains rain-fed crop farming. Like many others, he eventually moved to the wetter Eastern Highlands in search of arable land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not yet sure what the government is planning to do, but we are begging it to regularise our settlements,\u201d he said. \u201cThe demolition exercises have not yet started in our area, but we are hearing in the news what is happening elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Simon Chanakira, 44, Gweshengwe\u2019s neighbour, relocated to the Eastern Highlands from the drought-prone Chitora area in search of a better life.<\/p>\n

Independent researcher Trymore Maganga told Al Jazeera that illegal settlements in the Eastern Highlands have become a coping strategy for households affected by climate change, even if they are not a long-term solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese settlements leave long-standing land injustices unaddressed, create legal insecurity for migrants, increase environmental and hazard risks, and often generate social tensions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Uncertain future<\/p>\n

Human rights lawyer Blessing Nyamaropa told Al Jazeera that Zimbabwe lacks a policy framework specifically addressing climate-induced migration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who occupies land without following due process is regarded as an illegal occupier,\u201d he said. \u201cIn most cases, people approach traditional leaders, pay something and are allocated land. Traditional leaders do not have that authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some migrants have settled on commercial farms without official permission from the Ministry of Lands.<\/p>\n

\"LloydLloyd Gweshengwe, a climate migrant in Zimbabwe\u2019s Eastern Highlands [Andrew Mambondiyani\/Al Jazeera] (Restricted Use)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is illegal to occupy state land without a permit, lease or offer letter. The government has been invoking the law to have such people arrested and evicted from that land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the legal framework, Nyamaropa said enforcement alone cannot resolve the crisis, calling for greater awareness and structured responses to climate-driven displacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be an admission by all stakeholders that we have a challenge. Those affected should approach the relevant government departments so that they can be settled legally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For now, Gweshengwe continues tending his fields while waiting for clarity on what comes next.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have anywhere else to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mutare, Zimbabwe \u2013 New homesteads cling to the slopes of Zimbabwe\u2019s Eastern Highlands, a fertile mountain region that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":868806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[7779,746,50,159,67,132,68,2238],"class_list":["post-868805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-africa","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-zimbabwe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116754011036464880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}