Editing Zambian Defence Force (section)

===End of the Cold War and reforms===
In October 1980, two ZNDF officers, Brigadier Godfrey Miyanda and Colonel Patrick Mkandawire were arrested for planning a [[coup d'état]] with the support of an exiled Congolese insurgent movement, the [[Front for Congolese National Liberation]] (FLNC).<ref name=Atomic/> The plot involved arming the FLNC with ZNDF weaponry and later providing that movement with rear operating bases in Zambia as a reward for their efforts if the coup succeeded.<ref name=Atomic/> The ZNDF and the police apprehended the conspirators before they had opportunity to set the coup in motion and later raided the FLNC's base camp, detaining most of the insurgents.<ref name=Atomic/>

Due in part to the extreme secrecy surrounding the ZNDF's budget and the refusal of the [[United National Independence Party|UNIP]] to allow parliamentary debate on the topic, a number of problems concerning military funding were covered up rather than addressed.<ref name=Phiri/> For example, the facilities at ZNS training camps were so inadequate that typhoid outbreaks became common among recruits.<ref name=Phiri/> This was due to lack of funds to filter the camps' drinking water.<ref name=Phiri/> After a particularly serious typhoid outbreak between 1980 and 1981, the government was forced to suspend and later stop the compulsory national service programme.<ref name=Phiri/>

In November 1982, the ZNDF killed [[Adamson Mushala]] in an ambush outside Solwezi, although his followers continued to carry out operations under the leadership of Alexander Saimbwende.<ref name="Zambian"/> The DSC continued to pose a sufficient threat that an Italian mineral survey team had to be evacuated from Northwestern Province in 1984 after being targeted by the guerrillas.<ref name="Beggar"/> Nevertheless, the erosion of South African support ensured that its forces remained small and poorly armed.<ref name="Zambian"/> Mushala and later Saimbwende turned to ivory poaching to sustain their war effort against the ZNDF.<ref name="Zambian"/>

As the [[Mozambican Civil War]] intensified, the ZNDF had to contend with a number of armed incursions by [[Mozambican National Resistance]] (RENAMO) insurgents, who raided Zambian border towns in search of food and other supplies.<ref name="RENAMO">{{Cite web |url=http://insidethecoldwar.org/sites/default/files/documents/Department%20of%20State%2C%20Patterns%20of%20Global%20Terrorism%2C%201989_0.pdf |title=Patterns of Global Terrorism |access-date=2018-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129050336/http://insidethecoldwar.org/sites/default/files/documents/Department%20of%20State%2C%20Patterns%20of%20Global%20Terrorism%2C%201989_0.pdf |archive-date=2017-01-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The ZNDF made it a policy to pursue RENAMO into neighbouring Mozambique in hot pursuit if necessary.<ref name="RENAMO"/>

In 1988, a second coup d'état attempt was planned, this time by Lieutenant General Christian Tembo and at least three other senior army officers.<ref name=Chan>{{cite book|last=Chan|first=Stephen|title=Kaunda and Southern Africa|date=1992|pages=8–15|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]]|location=London|isbn=978-1850434900}}</ref> The conspirators were detained before they could carry it out, but this temporarily jeopardised relations between the Zambian government and the army.<ref name="Command"/>

The end of the [[Cold War]] brought a number of changes to the Zambian political situation and the ZNDF.<ref name=MacDonald>{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Brian|title=Military Spending in Developing Countries|url=https://archive.org/details/militaryspending0000macd|url-access=registration|date=1997|pages=[https://archive.org/details/militaryspending0000macd/page/79 79–92]|publisher=Carleton University Press|location=Ottawa|isbn=978-0886293147}}</ref> The ZNDF remained heavily in debt with the former Soviet bloc for military equipment it had purchased in the 1980s, as well as interest accrued.<ref name=MacDonald/> The army in particular was badly affected by the collapse of its Soviet technical training program, which left much of its heavy weapons unserviceable.<ref name=Howe>{{cite book|last=Howe|first=Herbert|title=Ambiguous Order: Military Forces in African States|date=2004|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ambiguousordermi0000howe/page/59 59–60]|publisher=Lynne Reinner Publishers|location=Boulder, Colorado|isbn=978-1588263155|url=https://archive.org/details/ambiguousordermi0000howe/page/59}}</ref>

Following mass protests over President Kaunda's decision to cut subsidies for maize meal and double maize prices in 1990,<ref name=Brancati>{{cite book|last=Brancati|first=Dawn|title=Democracy Protests: Origins, Features, and Significance|date=2016|page=52|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1107137738}}</ref> Captain Mwamba Luchembe single-handedly seized the national radio station and [[1990 Zambian coup attempt|announced a coup d'état]].<ref name=Chan/> Luchembe held the radio station for only two hours before being arrested.<ref name=Coups>{{cite book|last=Onwumechili|first=Chuka|title=African Democratization and Military Coups|url=https://archive.org/details/africandemocrati00onwu|url-access=limited|date=1998|pages=[https://archive.org/details/africandemocrati00onwu/page/n43 31]–32|publisher=Praeger Books|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0275963255}}</ref> Kaunda's unpopularity led to demonstrations in support of Luchembe, however, and the same day the president announced he would seek a referendum on democratic multi-party elections.<ref name=Brancati/> Kaunda granted a blanket amnesty to his political opponents as he prepared to accept the return of multi-party elections, which would shortly thereafter end his term of almost three decades.<ref name="Zambian"/> Among those who received [[amnesty]] was Alexander Saimbwende, who surrendered to the government and ended the DSC insurgency.<ref name="Zambian"/>

The [[1991 Zambian general election|1991 general election]] brought [[Frederick Chiluba]] and his opposition [[Movement for Multi-Party Democracy]] to power and ushered in a period of reforms for the ZNDF.<ref name="Command"/> The Chiluba government dismantled the ZNDF's unified command structure and allowed the army, ZNS, and air force to revert to independent commands.<ref name="Command"/> The system of political patronage introduced to the ZNDF by Kaunda was also abandoned.<ref name=Phiri/> A general demobilisation programme was instituted in the army, and parliament gained the ability to debate defence expenditure.<ref name=Phiri/> The Chiluba government immediately formed a [[Public Accounts Committee]] to reduce financial irregularities in the ZNDF, most of which were linked to corruption and abuse of the ministerial tender system.<ref name=Phiri/> Zambia's 1991 constitution formally reinstated the title ''Zambian Defence Force'' for the armed forces.<ref name="Constitution1">{{cite web|title=Zambia 1991 (rev 2009)|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|url=https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Zambia_2009?lang=en|location=Austin, Texas
|publisher=Comparative Constitutions Project|date=2009|access-date=15 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104000803/https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Zambia_2009?lang=en|archive-date=4 November 2016}}</ref>

In October 1997, Captain [[Steven Lungu]] seized control of the national radio station and [[1997 Zambian coup attempt|announced a coup d'état]].<ref name=Coups/> Lungu dismissed the chiefs of the army and police and announced that he was forming a new Government of National Redemption.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|title=Zambia Says a Coup Is Over In 3 Hours, Without Injury|last=McNeil|first=Donald|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/29/world/zambia-says-a-coup-is-over-in-3-hours-without-injury.html|work=The New York Times|location=New York City|date=29 October 1997|access-date=19 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902152851/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/29/world/zambia-says-a-coup-is-over-in-3-hours-without-injury.html|archive-date=2 September 2017}}</ref> He gave President Chiluba an ultimatum of three hours to surrender or face death.<ref name="NYT"/> Loyal ZDF troops responded by storming the radio station, capturing Lungu and five other coup plotters.<ref name="NYT"/>

In early August 2022, the government announced that it would recruit up to 5,000 military personnel by October of the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Times |date=4 August 2022 |title=Govt to recruit 5,000 military personnel by October 2022 |url=https://www.times.co.zm/?p=118518 |access-date=4 August 2022 |website=times.co.zm}}</ref>