Lionel Dyck

Colonel Lionel Dyck (1944 – 30 May 2024), also referred to as Colonel Dyck,

Military career Dyck was born in 1944 in Southern Rhodesia.

He underwent further education in South Africa and gave up drinking. He re-enlisted in the Rhodesian Army during the Rhodesian Bush War.

Following the country's transition into Zimbabwe, Dyck played a frontline role commanding the RAR in the 1981 Entumbane uprising.

Dyck's 1st Parachute Battalion conducted the first military operation in Matabeleland, code-named Operation Octopus. This group also operated in the region during the 1983 Matabeleland Massacres (known locally as Gukurahundi) in which an estimated 20,000 people were brutally killed in the mostly-Ndebele area that was loyal to the ZAPU faction, President Robert Mugabe's political enemy. Dyck was alleged to have participated in several acts of torture during this 1980s repression in Matabeleland.

He retired from the army in 1990 as a colonel and moved to South Africa.

Mercenary career In South Africa, Dyck founded a demining and anti-poaching company. In 2019 and 2020, he was hired by the Government of Mozambique to provide air cover for Mozambique soldiers during the RENAMO insurgency. In 2021, aged 77, he was hired by the Mozambique police to provide military assistance against Islamic terrorists, fighting on the front line in the Battle of Palma.

The DAG had been accused by Amnesty International of firing into random crowds; Dyck responded that armed insurgents running into crowds was a common tactic used by terrorists. Dyck also helped to co-ordinate the evacuation of civilians from the area.

Death Dyck died of cancer in Cape Town, South Africa, on 31 May 2024, aged 80.