Africa-Press – Mauritius. Southern African leaders gave “unwavering” backing Friday to the Democratic Republic of Congo, after the Rwanda-backed M23 group captured the biggest city in its mineral-rich east.
The southern African grouping SADC held crisis talks in Zimbabwe on the escalating conflict in the eastern DR Congo which has raised concerns for regional security.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit “reaffirmed its solidarity and unwavering commitment to continue supporting the DRC in its pursuit of safeguarding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to the final statement.
The DRC is one of the 16 member nations of the regional grouping.
The crisis talks were convened after 16 soldiers from South Africa and Malawi, also SADC members, were killed in fighting in recent days around the regional capital of Goma, where they were deployed as part of regional peacekeeping efforts.
The summit said that the objectives of the peacekeeping mission deployed in December 2023 “have not yet been realised,” the statement said.
It called for the immediate dispatch of defence officials from countries with troops in the peacekeeping force to review the troops on site.
Besides South Africa and Malawi, Tanzania also has soldiers in the force.
The statement also backed calls for a joint summit of SADC and the East African Community grouping “to deliberate on the way forward regarding the security situation in the DRC”.
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