The World - News from April 13, 1987

Zimbabwe, in a challenge to neighboring South Africa, has bought 12 Soviet MIG-29 interceptor aircraft, one of the Soviet Union’s most advanced warplanes, for delivery in mid-1988, London’s Sunday Telegraph reported. The newspaper quoted unidentified U.S. officials in Washington as saying Prime Minister Robert Mugabe spent his country’s remaining foreign exchange reserves--$324 million--and committed future crops to get the warplanes. It said the deal “poses a direct threat to Pretoria and will change the strategic balance in the region.”