About 200 elements of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC, were repatriated on Monday. They took the Kigali airport after crossing the border between Rwanda and the DRC. These South African and Malawian soldiers were part of the SADC soldiers who fought alongside the FARDC, the Congolese army and their allies, in the war against the M23.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

It was Monday evening when these soldiers crossed the border between Rwanda and the DRC. Unlike the repatriation of European mercenaries who surrendered to the M23 rebels a few weeks ago and who had flown through the same Kigali international airport in the Rwandan capital, Rwandan authorities did not want the event to be widely publicized.

« The press has been waiting for their crossing since morning and when they came, their convoy was driving at breakneck speed, » noted a journalist based in Rubavu, on the border between the two sister nations of the Great Lakes region of Africa.

« The group that was repatriated on Monday consisted of pregnant women, the wounded and the sick, » SOS Médias Burundi learned.

On February 8, two sub-regional communities, namely: the EAC – the East African Community and the SADC of which the DRC is a member, had asked the M23, which has controlled the city of Goma since January 27, to reopen the Goma airport.

But a spokesperson for the M23 indicated that « the runways and control towers of this airport were damaged by the Kinshasa coalition ».

Recently, Lawrence Kanyuka, political spokesperson for the M23, urged all foreign armies present on the Congolese soil to « return to their respective countries ».

In December 2023, the SADC deployed about 5,000 soldiers from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania, replacing the EAC force, which had been accused of inaction by Congolese authorities. The South African army paid a heavy price during the recent fighting with the M23. It lost 14 soldiers. After the capture of Goma by the M23 rebels, several elements of the SADC force remain stuck in their bases at Goma airport and in the Mubambiro area in particular, not far from Goma.

——

A convoy of buses transporting SADC soldiers to Rubavu in the western province of Rwanda, February 24, 2025 (SOS Médias Burundi)