The Democratic Republic of Congo has turned to 16 Southern African countries under the regional banner, SADC, to help end the devastating war in the eastern parts of the country.
This follows years of thousands of UN soldiers and most recently the East African Community peacekeeping forcing which collectively yielding nothing but frustration from the local population.
Now President Felix Tshisekedi has gone to SADC where he wants South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, eSwatini, Seychelles, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar and Mauritius to help out.
In response, SADC has offered to
deploy a regional force to restore
peace in the eastern part of the country.
An extraordinary summit held Monday, May 8, 2023 in Windhoek, Namibia resolved that SADC member countries must move into east Congo to protect civilians and help restore order.
The exact date of deployment of this regional force and the
number of contingents were not announced to the press.
SADC recommended that Kinshasa meets the necessary conditions for a summit to coordinate all stakeholders and all
international actors on the ground in order to arrive at an effective and harmonized action.
Namibian President Hage Geingob has also called on SADC to work with EAC and other regional forces to support the Congolese government.
SADC Executive Secretary Elias
Magosi said the security situation in the eastern DRC is worrisome with the humanitarian situation deteriorating due to the
resurgence of the M23 and other armed groups.
SADC will thus join the strength of EAC which took over areas previously occupied by the
M23 but failed to end the insurgency in North Kivu.
