Breakthrough in efforts to bring SA troops back home from DRC

The M23 armed group agreed a deal on Friday with the Southern African Development Community on the evacuation of SADC forces from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than a dozen of its soldiers have been killed in the conflict.

The 16-nation SADC, the regional bloc for southern Africa, decided to end the deployment earlier this month at a summit focused on the escalating violence.

Rwanda-backed M23 fighters have taken control of large swathes of North and South Kivu provinces since the group resurfaced in 2021.

The anti-governmental group launched a lightning offensive in January, capturing two major eastern cities, Goma and Bukavu, within a couple of weeks.

The DRC government has accused Rwanda of backing the M23 in order to seize valuable mineral resources and rich farmland.

Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military support, but a UN experts’ report has said that Rwanda maintains around 4,000 troops in the DRC’s east to assist the armed group.

The SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), made up of soldiers from Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa, was sent to the region in December 2023 to help the government of the DRC, also a SADC member, restore peace and security.

SA and other countries meet with M23 officials

On Friday, the chiefs of staff of the armed forces of South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania met the M23’s military chief Sultani Makenga in the city of Goma, according to a joint text released after the meeting.

The parties agreed, the text said, that the M23 would “facilitate immediate withdrawal of SAMIDRC troops with their weapons and equipment” via Goma airport, which is currently out of use because of damage caused by the fighting.

The M23 and SADC agreed to set up a joint committee to assess its condition, and the southern African bloc agreed to help repair it.

How many SADC troops are in the DRC?

The size of the SADC deployment has never been made public but analysts estimate it to number around 1,300 troops.

South Africa lost 14 soldiers in the eastern DRC conflict in January. Most were from the SAMIDRC mission but at least two were deployed as part of a separate United Nations peacekeeping force.

Soldiers from Malawi and Tanzania participating in the SADC mission have also been killed.

© Agence France-Presse