A Zimbabwean top military official, Lieutenant-General Edzai Absalom Chakanyuka Chimonyo has died.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba said the Zimbabwe National Army commander died in the early hours Thursday morning after a long battle with cancer.

“Devastated to announce the passing on of General Chimonyo early this morning after a long fight against cancer, go well freedom fighter, commander and ambassador,” Mr Charamba wrote on Twitter.

Lt-General Chimonyo was Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Tanzania until the 2017 coup that toppled long time ruler Robert Mugabe, in which he is said to have played a prominent role.

He was promoted to replace General Philip Valerio Sibanda, who was elevated to Defence Forces commander following the departure of Retired General Constantino Chiwenga to become vice president.

Chimonyo leaves a divided legacy in Zimbabwe as he was one of the commanders that led a military campaign that targeted the Ndebele minority in the 1980s.

The military campaign, known as Gukurahundi, or the rain that washes away the chaff in the local Shona language, left more than 20,000 people dead soon after the country’s independence from Britain in 1980.

A former Cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo described Lt-Gen Chimonyo as one of the most brutal commanders during the military campaign led by a North Korean trained army unit.

“The curtain has fallen on the ‘Butcher of Bhalagwe, Zimbabwe National Army commander Gen Edzai Chimonyo, one of the most cruel Gukurahundi commanders who used to callously boast in public about the Five Brigade’s atrocities committed under his command in Matabeleland South,” tweeted Moyo, who was forced into exile after the coup.

President Mnangagwa, who was State Security minister at the time, is under pressure to address the atrocities.

Soon after coming into power, he announced that victims of the atrocities would be assisted to acquire national identity documents and remains of those buried in mass graves will be exhumed for decent reburials.

The process is, however, yet to take off three years after the pledge was made.

President Mnangagwa has also refused to apologise for the atrocities saying he can only do so after an inquiry into the killings recommends that he does so.