More than 11,200 foreign nationals are now fighting with the Rhodesian security forces, according to the Patriotic Front of ZAPU and ZANU. Joshua Nkomo revealed to a press conference in Lusaka in February that the information had come from a "co-operative Western source". The mercenaries included 4,500 South Africans, 2,300 Americans, 2,000 British, 1,000 French, an unspecified number of West Germans and Portuguese, and 600 Israeli commandos. The bulk of this force was stationed in the Zambezi Valley, in anticipation of a major offensive by guerillas of the Patriotic Front, stationed in Zambia.
100 former members of the French Foreign Legion have been reported to be fighting as a special combat unit within the Rhodesian army, on standard army pay but with an added bonus credited to foreign bank accounts. The legionnaires are believed to have been formed into a separate unit of the Rhodesian Light Infantry following their arrival in Rhodesia in November 1977 under the command of two majors. According to the London Sunday Times, the Smith regime had sought the French General Staff's permission to recruit legionnaires at the end of their service, but had been turned down. Recruiting for French mercenaries has however been organised from a clandestine base at Lyons for at least a year.
Recruiters for the Rhodesian security forces are known to be active in many Western European countries and the U.S. The American mercenary magazine Soldier of Fortune, for example, reported in January that more than 150 men were currently awaiting security clearance in Britain before travelling to Rhodesia to work as guards on the farms affected by cattle rustling. An articles by an American employed, along with two other US citizens, as a "range detective" on a white farm near the Mozambique border has appeared in a subsequent issue.
