South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the deployment of 2,900 soldiers from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Ramaphosa’s order comes following escalated fighting between the Congolese defence force (FARDC) and the M23 rebels who continue to advance to into the strategic city of Goma, North Kivu Province.
The M23 have so far occupied several villages and towns surrounding Goma with thousands of people fleeing their homes in the past few days.
In an announcement made on Monday night, President Ramaphosa revealed that South Africa was thus fulfilling its international obligation to the South African Development Community (SADC) mission in the DRC.
“We will be deploying three groups. We will be deploying a specialist unit to Kinshasa. An aviation unit will be deployed to Goma and the third group will be an engineers squadron,” Brigadier-General Linda Selepe, responsible for SANDF external operations told reporters.
South Africa is the latest SADC member to offer additional assistance to the DRC in the wake of intense war in the east after Tanzania.
