South Africa has decided to send almost 3,000 soldiers to the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fight armed rebel groups, the South African president’s office said.
"In fulfilling South Africa’s international obligation towards the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to support the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the employment of 2900 members of the South African National Defense Force to assist in the fight against illegal armed groups in the Eastern DRC," the office said in a statement.
The military personnel will be deployed in the DRC until December 15, 2024, the statement added.
The M23 (March 23) group, which fights for the interests of the Tutsi ethnic minority in the DRC, first rebelled against the government in 2012, but suffered a major military defeat in 2013 and was disbanded. In 2021, the rebels took up arms again, accusing the country's authorities of violating agreements to integrate disarmed M23 rebels into the army.