The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has confirmed that the country's troops on a "peace mission" in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, can return home.
President Ramaphosa returned to this on February 5, 2025 when he informed the people of South Africa about the state of the country in various sectors.
This return came when he reached the point of the mission to restore peace in various countries that his country has participated in including Côte d'Ivoire, Burundi, South Sudan, Lesotho and Mozambique especially in Cabo Delgado Province.
He said, "The appearance of South African troops restoring peace in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is evidence of our will to find peaceful solutions to the war that has been going on for years and has killed millions of people and displaced others."
President Ramaphosa said that his country also asks the opposing parties in various wars in the world to do everything they can to find the results of those wars through peace, returning to the Luanda agreement aimed at finding solutions to the problems between Rwanda and the DRC, confirming that he supports it.
He said, “In those discussions, there is also respect for Luanda. We will also participate in the SADC-EAC meeting scheduled to be held in Tanzania at the end of this week.
We will demonstrate the need for a cessation of hostilities and the resumption of dialogue aimed at finding a solution to the war."
President Ramaphosa continued, "We will do everything possible to get our young men, our soldiers back home."
SADC troops have been in Eastern DRC since December 2023, with South Africa hosting the largest number of troops. The Luanda talks started in 2022 when the bad atmosphere in the relationship between Rwanda and the DRC.
At the beginning of that year, the RDC accused Rwanda of helping M23, a charge Rwanda denies, accusing it of helping the FDLR.
On December 14, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, Olivier Nduhungirehe, of the RDC, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner and their Angolan counterpart as a mediator, Tete António, entered the meeting room, in Luanda, Angola in order to improve what was to be signed by the heads of state the following day, however M23 came to destroy this goal that was not achieved.
