North Macedonia has launched legal proceedings in Zimbabwe to regain control over a diplomatic residence in Harare, allocated to the country through the succession process of former Yugoslavia’s foreign assets, but now illegally occupied by unknown individuals.
The property, located at 41 Argyle Drive, Highlands, Harare, was officially registered in the name of North Macedonia in June 2022, following a 2019 decision by the Joint Committee on the distribution of former Yugoslavia’s diplomatic and consular properties.
However, in the second half of 2022, unidentified persons broke into and unlawfully occupied the residence. Despite a police report and a one-month eviction deadline, the building remains under illegal control, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Radio Free Europe.
“A legal case was necessary, as institutional measures so far have failed to yield results,” the ministry stated.
In June, the government approved the hiring of a local attorney to represent the state in Zimbabwe’s courts and authorized a Foreign Ministry official to provide a statement necessary for the proceedings.
Back in 2020, the previous government considered selling or exchanging the Harare property. In 2021, then-Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani announced that North Macedonia had already initiated the sale process, citing the lack of diplomatic presence in Zimbabwe and no plans to establish one.
As compensation, the country received a parcel of land in Ankara’s diplomatic district, where it plans to construct a new embassy in partnership with other states.
This is not North Macedonia’s first diplomatic real estate crisis. In October 2023, dozens of Congolese migrants occupied a former Yugoslav embassy building in Brussels, which was awarded to North Macedonia and Croatia. The building was only vacated after intervention from Belgian authorities.
North Macedonia continues to navigate unresolved issues in the Yugoslav succession process. Of 123 diplomatic properties worldwide, around 20 remain to be formally divided among the successor states.