According to the South African government, the defence minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo began a visit to South Africa on Monday to enhance “strategic defence capabilities” between the two nations.
Amidst the intensifying fighting in the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where South African forces deployed with a mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have sustained significant losses, the visit is scheduled to last until Thursday.
“This visit aims to further strengthen and enhance the longstanding bilateral defence relations between South Africa and the DRC,” South Africa’s defence ministry said in a statement.
The defence minister of South Africa, Angie Motshekga, and the defence minister of Congo, Guy Kabombo Muadiamvita, will discuss “key areas of defence cooperation and bolstering strategic defence capabilities,” the statement said.
The ministry stated that the collaboration is “essential for promoting peace, security, and stability throughout the region.”
In January, 14 South African soldiers were killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the M23 armed organisation, which is backed by Rwanda, has launched a rapid onslaught and taken control of important cities and vast tracts of terrain.
The SADC mission, which was dispatched in December 2023 to assist the DRC government, which is also a member of SADC, in re-establishing peace and security, comprised the majority of the soldiers.
Two or more of the soldiers who were killed were serving with a different United Nations peacekeeping mission.
Following the fatalities, a dispute broke out between Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa. Kagame tweeted that the troops from South Africa were “engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government” rather than being a peacekeeping force.
“If South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,” Kagame wrote in a post on X.
In mid-March, the SADC declared that it would withdraw its military presence, with the majority of its troops coming from South Africa.
On March 18, Qatar unexpectedly announced it had hosted the Rwandan and Congolese presidents for talks in which they “reaffirmed the commitment of all parties to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.”
Nevertheless, the M23 last week captured Walikale, a mining centre, the farthest west the group has moved into the DRC’s interior since 2012.
