PREVIEW
The failure of the SADC mission sounds alarms about the future of multilateral attempts to resolve conflict on the continent
By agreeing that its deployment will be ‘terminated’ as part of a ‘phased withdrawal’ at a summit on 13 March, the Southern African Development Community has at last accepted what had become clear soon after it was deployed to eastern Congo-Kinshasa in late-2023 – that without air cover and better technical equipment, the force would be comprehensively out gunned by the M23 militia and its backers in the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF).
South Africa provided most of the soldiers to the 3,000-troop deployment by the SADC in eastern Congo-K known as SAMIDRC. The sense of crisis escalated after 14 South African soldiers were killed by the RDF and the M23 militia group in clashes over Goma, the main city in eastern Congo-K, in late January (AC Vol 66 No 3, After seizing Goma, Kigali’s rebels head south). The M23 and the RDF seized the city before the end of January and then moved south to take over Bukavu, the capital of Kivu-Sud.
SADC leaders have also been deeply frustrated by the chaotic organisation of Congolese army forces, Romanian mercenaries and local militia groups who are fighting alongside the SADC and United Nations peacekeeping forces (AC Vol 66 No 4, As Kinshasa fumes, Kigali plots its next move).
The SAMIDRC deployment arrived in December 2023 after Congo-K's President Félix Tshisekedi refused to extend the mandate of a Kenya-led mission from the East African Community. Forces from Tanzania and Malawi have already been recalled while South African officials declined to respond initially to the mounting criticism of the operation from the public and political parties in Pretoria.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on 13 March that the mission would be phased out as diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis intensified. Angola’s President João Lourenço is reluctantly continuing with his attempted mediation between Kinshasa and Kigali at the same time as he holds the African Union’s rotating presidency. Direct peace talks between Congo-K and M23 are due to start on 18 March in Luanda (Dispatches 18/2/25, Silence in Addis as M23 takes Bukavu). Sanctions on individuals and the Rwandan government will again be on the agenda at an EU foreign ministers meeting on 17 March.
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