REMAINS OF S.AFRICAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN D.R.C ARRIVE HOME

On 21 February, the bodies of two South African soldiers killed while on a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) arrived back home. Their remains were received amid sombre military salutations at Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.

Captain Simon Mkhulu Bobe and Lance Corporal Irven Thabang Semono were killed last week when a mortar bomb hit a camp housing a South African military contingent. It’s the first fatalities for South Africa since it began deploying 2,900 soldiers to the Eastern Congo to help put an end to increasing rebel violence in the region. The mortar attack also left three soldiers with serious injuries.

At the invitation of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed to deploy a regional peacekeeping mission to the Eastern DRC. In mid 2023, Tshisekedi announced that a SADC military battalion would replace soldiers from the East African Community (EAC) who had been deployed to Eastern Congo months earlier. Their role was to help fight the M23 rebels who are blamed for the rise in violence in the region. However, Tshisekedi accused the EAC forces of not only being ineffective against the M23 but also colluding with them. Equally unsatisfied with a two-decade-long United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in his country, Tshisekedi has demanded their total withdrawal from the Congo by the end of this year.

Several stakeholders, including the UN and the Congolese government, have accused neighbouring Rwanda of funding and arming M23, a charge that Kigali has repeatedly denied.