JOHANNESBURG: President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed Monday to continue providing support to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the face of nationwide calls to withdraw troops following the death of 14 South African soldiers.
Rwanda-backed M23 fighters have made substantial gains in the eastern DRC, taking the major city of Goma last week and vowing to march across the country to the capital, Kinshasa.
It is the latest escalation in a mineral-rich region devastated by decades of fighting involving dozens of armed groups and has rattled the continent, with regional blocs holding emergency summits over the spiralling tensions.
“Achieving a lasting peace and security for the eastern DRC and the region requires the collective will of the community of nations,” Ramaphosa said in a statement. “South Africa will not let up in its support to the people of the DRC.”
Fourteen soldiers from South Africa have been killed in the conflict, prompting calls for a withdrawal, including from the radical economic freedom fighters (EFF) party.
Most of the soldiers killed were part of a peacekeeping mission sent to eastern DRC in 2023 by the 16-nation Southern African development community (SADC).
“The deployment… is reckless and unjustifiable,” EFF leader Julius Malema said Monday.
“With the increasing hostility involving the M23 rebels, it is imperative that South Africa withdraws its troops to ensure their safety.”
Ramaphosa highlighted that the SADC mission had operational timeframes and an end date.
“The mission will wind down in accordance with the implementation of various confidence-building measures and when the ceasefire we have called for takes root,” he said.
“For a lasting peace to be secured in the eastern DRC, there must be an immediate end to hostilities and a ceasefire that must be respected by all.”
‘Way forward’
The SADC last week called for a summit with the eight-country East African community to “deliberate on the way forward regarding the security situation in the DRC”.
The move followed a meeting by SADC that pledged unwavering support for the DRC and reiterated backing for mediation efforts led by Angola and Kenya.
The summit in the Zimbabwean capital Harare also dispatched officials to the DRC to ensure SADC troops are safe and to facilitate the repatriation of the dead and wounded who are still in the country.
South Africa dominates the SADC force, which is estimated to number around 1,300 troops, but Malawi and Tanzania also contribute soldiers.
Commentators and analysts have questioned the quality of the support and equipment available to the South African national defence force (SANDF), citing budget cuts in the cash-strapped government.
The Democratic Alliance party, which has demanded a debate in parliament over the deployment, said it wanted to know “why our troops were deployed without the required support including air support”.
“The government has kept increasing the SANDF’s mandate while cutting its funding and capabilities,” Guy Martin, editor of an African magazine defenceWeb, wrote in the local Sunday Times newspaper.
Spat with Rwanda
Rwanda has never admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 group and alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by former Hutu leaders who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
After the South African soldiers were killed Ramaphosa held talks with his Rwandan counterpart in which they agreed on the need for a ceasefire, according to his office.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame afterwards accused Ramaphosa of misrepresenting their meeting.
He said South African troops had no place in the eastern DRC and were a “belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government fight against its own people”.