South Africa says it working to support its troops stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At least 13 of its soldiers have been killed in the conflict pitting Rwanda-back M23 rebels against the Congolese army and its allies.
“The M23 has been taking villages and towns over the past month or so, and we know that, until they got to a place called Sake where our operational base is located,” said South Africa’s National Defence Force spokesperson, Siphiwe Dlamini.
“So they attacked that base and when our base came under attack we then responded. And we did indeed push them back.”
According to Dlamini, 10 of the soldiers were killed when responding to that attack, while the others died in during clashes between M23 rebels and Congolese forces on Monday when some mortars fell on their base.
He said the government was also working on repatriating the bodies of the fallen soldiers, a process that is expected to take longer than usual because of the volatile situation in Goma.
Dlamini said it is not yet clear whether more troops would be sent to the region as reinforcement.
“Getting more support to them is something that we are working on to avoid any loss of life. But to make sure that even those that are bringing in those supplies are actually secured.”
He said the decision on deploying more soldiers would likely be discussed at the Southern Africa Development (SADC) extraordinary summit in Harare, Zimbabwe on Thursday.
The South African troops are part of the regional bloc’s peacekeeping force in the region.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday described it as a “critical mission” aimed at achieving lasting peace and stability in the eastern DRC.
Dlamini said despite the clashes, the South African mission remains a peacekeeping one.
SADC to hold extraordinary summit
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold an Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government in Harare on Thursday to discuss the security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, current SADC chairperson, will preside over this high-level meeting, which follows the Extraordinary Summit of the SADC Troika Organ, extended to the DRC and troop-contributing countries to the SAMIDRC mission, held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
Meetings of the SADC Standing Committee of Senior Officials and the Council of Ministers preceded the summit, which comes against a backdrop of persistent tensions in eastern DRC.
SAMIDRC, a regional force deployed in the DRC, is one of SADC’s initiatives aimed at restoring peace and security in this troubled region of Central Africa.
