Africa

South Africa to Send 2,900 Troops to Eastern DRC

FILE - South African troops drive past thousands who are fleeing the ongoing conflict between government forces and M-23 rebels reach the entrance the Democratic Republic of Congo eastern city of Goma February 7, 2024.

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JOHANNESBURG - South Africa will send 2,900 troops as part of its contribution to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) force deployed to tackle armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the president's office said in a statement on Monday.

The one-year deployment will cover the period between December
15. 2023 and Dec. 15, 2024, and will cost around 2 billion rand ($105.75 million), the statement said.

The 16-member state SADC approved the eastern DRC mission in May last year to help the Central African nation, the world's top supplier of cobalt and Africa's top copper producer, address instability and deteriorating security in its restive eastern region.

Decades of conflicts in eastern DRC between myriad rival armed groups over land and resources has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 7 million.

The SADC force has an offensive mandate to support DRC's army fight armed groups. It will include troops from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.

The deployment comes as DRC battles Tutsi-led M23 rebels whose attacks and advances in recent days, is threatening the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma.