SADC calls emergency summit on DRC crisis for Friday

Harare – The southern African regional group SADC said it will hold a special summit on the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday in the Zimbabwean capital.

The extraordinary session of the 16-nation Southern African Development Community will “discuss matters of Eastern DRC, which is a worrying situation”, its executive secretary Elias Magosi said Thursday.

The Rwanda-backed M23 has captured most of the regional capital Goma in a dramatic escalation of a decade-long campaign that has seen it seize swathes of eastern DRC.

Thirteen South African and three Malawian troops have been killed in the conflict since Friday last week.

Most were from the Southern African Development Community’s Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC) but at least two South Africans were deployed as part of a separate UN peacekeeping mission.

SAMIDRC deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 to restore peace and security amid growing instability in the mineral-rich area.

It is made up of around 2,900 troops from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania.

SADC’s security grouping met virtually late Tuesday to discuss the situation and its recommendations are expected to be discussed at the Harare summit, reports said.

South Africa’s Daily Maverick news site cited a source as saying that leaders at the Harare summit were expected to decide to withdraw their forces.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he has spoken twice to Rwandan President Paul Kagame in the past days to demand a ceasefire.

Kagame said in a post on X that the SAMIDRC “is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation”.

“It was authorised by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda,” he said.

The DRC is a member of the SADC but Rwanda is not part of the grouping.