JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
South Africa will send 2,900 troops as part of its contribution to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) force deployed to tackle armed groups in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the president's office said in a statement on Monday.
The one-year deployment will
cover the period between December 15, 2023 and December 15, 2024, and
will cost around 2 billion rand ($105.75 million), the statement said.
The 16-member state SADC
approved the Eastern Congo mission in May last year to help
DRC, the world's top supplier of cobalt and Africa's top copper producer,
address instability and deteriorating security in its restive eastern region.
Decades of conflicts in
Eastern Congo between myriad rival armed groups over land and resources has
killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than 7 million.
The SADC force has an
offensive mandate to support Congo's army fight armed groups. It will include
troops from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.
The deployment comes as
Congo battles M23 rebels whose attacks and advances in recent
days, is threatening the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma.
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