Africa-Press – South-Africa. The more than 2,000 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers still deployed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are expected to return home by the end of June.
The SANDF said all personnel stationed as peacekeepers in the conflict-ridden North Kivu region would be fully withdrawn by the end of June.
This followed the return of the first group of 249 soldiers on Friday.
SANDF spokesperson Prince Tshabalala said that several flights were scheduled in the coming days.
“As we already indicated that there’ll be several trips, which in total I think is nine, which will then be able to take all the troops back home. So, we are expecting, even tomorrow, more of these flights similar to the one that we have seen to be coming back home so that we are able to finish the operation by end of the month.”
Tshabalala said all returning troops would undergo a four-day demobilisation process to support their reintegration into society.
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