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As M23 rebels in the eastern DRC continue to strengthen their hold, capturing the provincial capital of Bukavu over the weekend, the situation for South African National Defence Force soldiers confined to their bases at Goma and Sake by the rebels is becoming increasingly precarious.
There are reports of food and water shortages and no information available on the injured.
South Africa’s Defence Minister, Angie Motshekga, has confirmed that the SANDF has been sending reinforcements via planes to Lubumbashi in the hope of extracting some of the soldiers, starting with the injured. However, Lubumbashi is more than 1000 km from where the soldiers are held.
The South African government has not outlined a clear plan to address the crisis. There are also concerns that the stranded troops could become leverage in negotiations between the M23 rebels and international stakeholders.
The remains of the 14 soldiers who died in skirmishes with the M23 rebels have been sent back to South Africa and handed over to their families.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told the families of the fallen soldiers over the weekend that he remains resolute in South Africa continuing its mission as part of a Southern African Development Community deployment.
However, there is increasing pressure from within South Africa on Ramaphosa to bring the troops home. Malawi is reported to have withdrawn some of its troops, but South Africa’s options for extraction remain limited without the cooperation of the M23 rebels.
The South African Sunday publication, Rapport, reported that the SANDF was secretly devising a plan to evacuate the country’s soldiers by April, which would involve negotiations with the M23 rebels.
Leading defence analyst Helmoed-Römer Heitman told National Security News that he believed South Africa should now accept that it was a bungled operation and start negotiating for the release of the captive soldiers and the withdrawal of troops.
“We have to accept the egg on our face, negotiate our way out of this one, then sit down and shut up for a decade while we rebuild the defence force, and then we can think about it in the future.”
Heitman described South Africa’s current involvement in the DRC as “deeply irresponsible, pretending to be a regional power on what is essentially an overgrown border guard budget.”
African Union leaders and the United Nations have expressed concern about the prospect of an open regional war over the eastern DRC. On Saturday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres demanded the Democratic Republic of Congo’s “territorial integrity” be respected and a regional war avoided after the M23 seized fighters and a second DRC provincial capital.
