South African and other SADC troops finally begin withdrawal from war-torn DRC

The soldiers of the SADC Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC) started withdrawing from their bases in Goma and nearby Sake by road through Rwanda to Tanzania on Tuesday, said a senior official of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

He told Daily Maverick that the troops were pulling out with all their equipment to Chato in Tanzania, which is evidently the staging post for their return to their home countries. “I cannot tell you the exact date of complete withdrawal, but we hope by end of June 2025 all will be completed,” he said.

A source in the M23/Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) coalition, which has been fighting SAMIDRC, said the coalition had given the SAMIDRC troops an ultimatum to leave DRC in two weeks. This could not be confirmed.

Darren Olivier, a director at the African Defence Review, posted on the social media platform X: “SAMIDRC’s three contingents, South Africa, Malawi, and Tanzania, are packing up & preparing to move in stages with all their equipment by road through Rwanda to Chato in Tanzania. It’s risky & not as ideal as leaving through Goma Airport, but an outcome SADC will be happy with.”

SADC has never officially confirmed the number of troops it had in DRC, but military experts believe it ranged from 2,000 to 3,000.

Videos posted on social media purported to show a convoy of armoured vehicles and large trucks carrying containers and heavy equipment, including artillery, passing through Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. According to Rwanda’s New Times, a Rwandan government-aligned newspaper, the SAMIDRC convoy was escorted by the Rwandan Defence Force.

That would suggest that Kigali is extracting significant propaganda value from the withdrawal of the SADC troops, which had been deployed in eastern DRC from December 2023 with the main mandate to neutralise M23 rebels. The rebels have been heavily backed by Rwanda, militarily and otherwise.

Instead, the M23/Rwanda overran SAMIDRC in battles around Sake and Goma in late January this year, killing 14 SANDF troops, three Malawians and two Tanzanians as well as one Uruguayan attached to the UN peacekeeping force, Monusco. Some of the SANDF troops killed were also part of Monusco, not SAMIDRC.

Trapped

Since then, the remaining SAMIDRC troops had been trapped as virtual prisoners of war in their camps in and around Goma and Sake. The dead and injured were repatriated earlier.

On 13 March, SADC leaders decided at a summit to terminate SAMIDRC’s mandate.

The military chiefs of SA, Malawi and Tanzania — the three SADC countries which had contributed troops to SAMIDRC — met the M23  military commander in Goma on 28 March, when M23 agreed SAMIDRC could withdraw by air from Goma airport.

But first, the airport — which was damaged in fighting in January — had to be repaired with the help of SADC. When the military chiefs of the three countries met each other in Dar es Salaam on 11 April, they decided that since no progress had been made in fixing Goma airport, the SAMIDRC troops should rather be evacuated by road through Rwanda to the town of Chato, which would serve as a general assembly area.

Daily Maverick asked a spokesperson for the SA National Defence Force (SANDF)  to confirm the start of the withdrawal of its troops from DRC, but had received no reply by the time of publication.

Chris Hattingh, an MP and defence spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance, said his party was “deeply concerned by the growing confusion and lack of official communication” about the SANDF troops deployed in DRC as part of SAMIDRC.

He said credible reports had emerged that SANDF troops had begun to withdraw “under uncertain and possibly coercive circumstances” and reports also indicated “some personnel may be exiting the area without their full complement of weapons and equipment, raising serious questions about command, coordination and the safety of our soldiers”.

He found it particularly alarming that both the Department of Defence and Defence Minister Angie Motshekga had been silent on the withdrawal and that Parliament’s Joint Defence Portfolio Committee had received no formal briefing or update about any scheduled withdrawal.

“This lack of transparency not only undermines parliamentary oversight but leaves the public and families of deployed members in a state of anxiety and confusion.”

Hattingh called on Motshekga and SANDF chief General Rudzani Maphwanya to urgently and fully brief the defence committee on the current status of the SANDF deployment to the DRC.

He said they should clarify the role and authority of M23 or any other armed groups in relation to the movement or disarmament of South African troops; provide assurances that all military equipment would be accounted for and secured during any withdrawal; and reaffirm “the constitutional principle of civilian oversight over the armed forces, particularly in foreign deployments involving risk and political complexity”. DM