The bodies of South African soldiers who died last month as the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group took Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were recovered this week and are being repatriated through Uganda.
As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepared for his annual State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Thursday afternoon, he received regular updates of the evacuation, which took place together with Malawi’s withdrawal of its troops from the eastern DRC.
Malawian and South African troops were part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in the DRC, sent there as peacekeepers, while South African troops were also part of the United Nations mission in the region. At least 14 South African soldiers are known to have died, and it’s unclear how many survivors are retreating from the region.
Ramaphosa responds
The Africa Report has learnt from two sources close to the evacuation that the UN was responsible for transporting the bodies from Malawi, but that there were difficulties on Thursday evening to find a flight that could take the bodies home.
Spokesperson for the South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) Simphiwe Dlamini said a statement on the matter will be issued, and details will be added once received. He did issue a statement earlier in the week confirming that the process of repatriation was underway.
In his address on Thursday night, a sombre-looking Ramaphosa read out the names of the 14 deceased, a “tragic and devastating loss of … soldiers who were part of a mission to bring peace”. Without mentioning Rwandan President Paul Kagame by name, Ramaphosa hit back at claims by the Rwandans that the soldiers were there to protect private business interests.
“They lost their lives in defence of the fundamental right of the Congolese people to live in peace and security,” he said. Malawi and Tanzania also lost soldiers as the peacekeepers according to some accounts found themselves in the middle of fighting between the M23 and the Congolese armed forces.