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All wounded South African soldiers now repatriated from DRC

All wounded South African soldiers now repatriated from DRC
Peter Fabricius
By Peter Fabricius
26 Feb 2025
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Fate of the remaining trapped soldiers is still not clear.

All of the South African soldiers who were wounded in fighting with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are now home.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) announced on Wednesday, 26 February 2025,  that the remainder of the wounded soldiers who needed medical attention had been successfully repatriated and would receive the necessary medical care.

Earlier this week the SANDF announced that the most critically injured soldiers had been brought home. 

In its statement on Wednesday, the SANDF said that upon the arrival of the second group of wounded soldiers, they were categorised into three priority areas of care: “critical, non-critical, and those who require psychological and social intervention”.

“The SANDF remains committed to the welfare of our soldiers. We therefore urge the public to respect and afford privacy to our members and their families during the healing process,” the statement said. 

SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini declined to say how many soldiers had now been repatriated. 

Remains repatriated


The remains of 14 SANDF soldiers who were killed in the action against M23 were repatriated on 13 February. 

Between 1,000 and 2,000 SANDF soldiers remain in eastern DRC, trapped and surrounded by M23 rebel troops in their bases around Goma, the main city in the region that was captured by M23 from DRC government troops on 27 January this year.

Most of the South African troops were deployed to DRC from December 2023 as part of the SADC Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC) along with Tanzanian and Malawian troops.

The rest were deployed as part of the UN peacekeeping mission Monusco.

The fate of the soldiers seems to depend on mediation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community, which met at the summit level on 8 February to consider how to resolve the crisis.

They mandated their defence chiefs to meet to discuss a ceasefire and other aspects. The two organisations announced that the defence chiefs were meeting on Monday in Dar es Salaam. A leaked document added that cabinet ministers of the SADC and East African Community would meet there on Friday to consider the defence chiefs’ report. 

However SADC spokesperson Barbara Lopi said it had not yet been decided if the ministers would meet on Friday, although she confirmed the defence chiefs had met. 

Mediators


But it has been confirmed that the East African Community and SADC have decided to appoint former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn as mediators of a new eastern DRC conflict mediation process. 

The three leaders will manage the new peace process, which merges the Luanda process, which was led by Angolan President João Lourenço who was the mediator appointed by the African Union, and the Nairobi process led by Kenyatta.

It is not surprising that Lourenço has been replaced as the mediator as he had indicated recently that his duties as the current African Union chairperson would not allow him enough time to do the DRC job. DM

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