South Africa is to deploy at least 2 900 members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist in the fight against illegal armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the deployment fulfilling South Africa’s international obligation towards the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to support the DRC.
The deployment comes as the DRC battles Tutsi-led M23 rebels whose attacks and advances in recent days are threatening the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma.
According to media reports, decades of conflicts in eastern Congo between myriad rival armed groups over land and resources have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than seven million.
The SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC) was deployed on 15 December 2023 and will continue until 15 December 2024.
The order was authorised by the provisions of section 201(2) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
The budgeted expenditure to be incurred for the employment amounts to just over R2 billion.
The confirmation comes after two SANDF soldiers were injured in an attack in the DRC nearly two weeks ago.
