Bloemfontein - More than 400 South African soldiers are heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo to beef up the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Congo (Monusco), a senior official said on Wednesday.
“We will be deploying three groups. We will be deploying a specialist unit to Kinshasa. An aviation unit will be deployed to Goma and the third group will be an engineers squadron,” Brigadier-General Linda Selepe, responsible for SANDF external operations told reporters.
A farewell parade was held at the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) mobilisation unit in De Brug, near Bloemfontein.
The deployment is a rotation for the South African soldiers as hundreds on that mission would be returning home.
The soldiers would be flying to their destination on UN chartered flights. Selepe said the use of UN chartered flights was not because of a lack of capacity in the SANDF.
“It is a responsibility of the United Nations to transport members being deployed to external operations. It is not that we don’t have the capacity,” he said.
“Even the ones returning home will be brought back by the UN,” he added.
An advance group has already left for the turbulent southern African state.
On Wednesday, the SANDF handed “goodwill parcels” to the soldiers heading for combat. Private sector companies have contributed to the parcels through donations.
Soldiers spend a year in the Monusco deployment before getting replaced. Individuals could return to South Africa prematurely for a bereavement or other commitments.
In September, the SANDF said it was withdrawing around 50 soldiers from the UN mission in the DRC to face court martial.
The group were alleged to have broken curfew in the eastern DRC where they have been stationed, Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga told ANA at the time.
“The information that we have is that a total of 50 members have broken curfew in the deployment area,” he said, adding that the number may increase.
“Since the final authority resides in the United Nations, we are in the process of asking the UN to give us permission to withdraw them from the deployment area,” he added.
The SANDF has about 900 to 1 000 troops stationed in the eastern DRC as part of the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), which operates under the auspices of Monusco.
South Africa has maintained a constant troop presence in the DRC since 1999 when the Second Congo War, considered the deadliest in modern African history, broke out. At that point only a small number was sent, but it increased considerably in 2003, after a series of peace accords were signed.
ANA