According to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), three of its soldiers were hurt and two of its soldiers died on Wednesday, February 14, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where its detachment is stationed to combat rebels.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional force claimed in a statement on Thursday that the troops died in “an indirect fire” after a mortar bomb struck one of its locations in the unstable area.
The statement stated that “details of this incident are still sketchy” and that an inquiry will be conducted to ascertain the incident’s cause. The injured were transferred to the closest hospital in Goma for medical assistance.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa announced on Monday that his nation would send 2,900 soldiers to the SADC regional force, which was sent to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2023 to support a coalition led by the government in its war against the M23 rebels in North Kivu.
The SADC regional force, which also includes soldiers from Malawi and Tanzania, would “assist in the fight against illegal armed groups,” according to Ramaphosa’s administration.
Nonetheless, analysts caution that the SADC regional force, led by South Africa, may wind up cooperating with the FDLR, a UN-approved militia that is a component of the coalition of Congolese governments, if it cooperates with the country’s military forces.
Remaining members of the group that carried out the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi created the FDLR in 2000.After going into sleep for over ten years, the M23 rebels came back to life in November 2021. The rebels claim that they fight to defend civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo from militias like the FDLR, which are suspected of inciting violence and propagating ideas of genocide against villages of Congolese Tutsis.
For almost 30 years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has remained unstable. Over 130 armed groups are based in the provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu, and Ituri; they are charged with crimes against humanity and human rights violations.
Decades of insecurity have not been ended despite several regional and international efforts. After more than 20 years, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the nation, MONUSCO, has started to remove its troops from the volatile area.
In December 2023, the EAC regional force ceased its operations following a little more than a year of deployment.
, three of its soldiers were hurt and two of its soldiers died on Wednesday, February 14, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where its detachment is stationed to combat rebels.){kind=link}