Fears grow for trapped SAMIDRC troops after M23 rebels renege on agreement

New concerns have arisen over the safety and withdrawal of South African and other southern African troops trapped for nearly three months in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), after Rwandan-backed M23 rebels reneged on their agreement of last month to let the troops fly out of Goma airport — with all their equipment.

At the same time, renewed fighting has erupted around Goma between the M23 and DRC forces close to the bases of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC) — which comprises troops of South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi.

On 12 April, M23 and its partner, the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), issued a statement accusing SAMIDRC of conducting joint military operations alongside the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC), the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Wazalendo militia in Goma against M23. It said these included attacks on 12 April.

On the same day, the DRC government issued a statement accusing AFC/M23 and Rwanda of attacks on civilians in Goma on 11 and 12 April.

In its statement, AFC/M23 issued a veiled threat of retaliation against SAMIDRC and said the attacks compelled it to demand the immediate withdrawal of SAMIDRC forces — now stranded in their bases around Goma — from DRC.

This would reverse an agreement reached on 28 March between the M23 commander and the commanders of the SA National Defence Force (DSANDF) and the Malawian and Tanzanian defences forces at a meeting in Goma, capital of DRC’s North Kivu province, to allow the SAMIDRC troops to fly home out of Goma airport with their weapons.

Read more: Goma ‘fiasco’ — deal to bring SA and SADC troops home hits a snag

The joint statement at the time noted that Goma airport would first have to be repaired to enable SAMIDRC’s withdrawal. It added that SADC had agreed to help repair the airport, which was damaged in major clashes in January between DRC forces and SAMIDRC on the one side and M23 rebels on the other side, in which 14 South African soldiers, three Malawians and one Tanzanian died.

SAMIDRC deployed in eastern DRC in December 2023. On 13 March, after the deaths of their troops, SADC leaders decided at a summit to terminate SAMIDRC’s mandate and “directed the commencement of a phased withdrawal of SAMIDRC troops from the DRC”. But this has not been easy.

People gather next to SANDF vehicles as they flee DRC's Masisi territory following clashes between M23 rebels and government forces, at a road near Sake on 7 February 2024. (Photo: Aubin Mukoni / AFP)

SADC disputes claims

On 14 April, the SADC said it had “noted with deep concern” and firmly denied AFC/M23’s accusation that SAMIDRC had undertaken military operations against M23. Independent military experts said they had received no reports of SAMIDRC military activity.

Some believe that M23 has invented the attacks to justify reneging on the 28 March agreement to allow SAMIDRC to withdraw by air through Goma airport with their weapons.

The AFC/M23 statement was issued a day after a statement surfaced on social media claiming that the SANDF chief, General Rudzani Maphwanya, the Tanzania People’s Defence Force chief, General Jacob John Mkunda, and the Malawi Defence Force chief, General Paul Valentino Phiri, had met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and had agreed that because of the delays in fixing Goma airport, they had decided instead that SAMIDRC would withdraw by road through Rwanda to the town of Chato in Tanzania.

It said the SADC Secretariat would “engage Rwanda to facilitate the safe passage of SAMDRC troops”.

However, SADC officials have denied knowledge of this statement, and in its statement of 14 April, SADC reaffirmed its commitments to the agreements reached with the leadership of M23 on 28 March, which called for a withdrawal from Goma airport. “SAMIDRC is currently implementing a structured and coordinated withdrawal from the DRC,” said SADC.

Questions over M23 backtracking

SA defence experts suspect M23 is looking for a way out of its 28 March agreement to let SAMIDRC withdraw with its heavy weapons. Darren Oliver, director at the African Defence Review, posted on X: “I’m not hearing anything that would substantiate M23’s claim of SAMIDRC involvement in this fighting. My sources say the SAMIDRC troops in Goma & Sake remain in their bases with only limited logistics traffic. M23 appears to be inventing a reason to renege on the agreement.”

Defence expert Dean Wingrin agreed, posting on X, “Why would SAMIDRC conduct ops now? They've got a deal with M23 and are withdrawing once Goma Airport is opened. I suspect it’s just the FARDC and supporters on an offensive, putting SAMIDRC at risk.”

He later added that most SAMIDRC troops were “still surrounded by M23/RDF, [Rwanda Defence Force] thus easy hostages in any attack!”

Wingrin said that M23’s demand on 12 April for the immediate withdrawal of SAMIDRC meant they could not be airlifted out (as Goma airport was not ready for that), “So, with the airport airlift cancelled by M23, it is a long journey by road to an airport in north west Tanzania,” he said, apparently referring to Chato.

He said a withdrawal of SAMIDRC through Rwanda, especially with heavy equipment, would be “a long logistic trail … slow, rough roads and reliant on Rwanda to agree to the plan”.

Wingrin concluded, “Plans for an orderly and phased SAMIDRC departure are rapidly falling apart.”

Read more: DRC debacle batters SA’s standing as an actor in African peacekeeping

Meanwhile, on the ground he said the situation was “rapidly deteriorating”, with Congolese government forces on the offensive against Rwanda and M23 forces, who were firing back with rocket launchers not far from the SAMIDRC base in Sake. Roads in and out of Goma were closed.

Oliver noted that the SANDF chief had been in Tanzania for a SAMIDRC crisis meeting.

“The situation is deteriorating rapidly with the renewed fighting and M23’s reneging on the earlier ceasefire and withdrawal agreement it signed with SADC. Odds of a good outcome for SAMIDRC are shrinking fast.” DM