The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, told the Parliament of this country that he has established a week to pay homage to the 14 soldiers who died in the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
President Ramaphosa announced this on February 6, 2025 when he informed South Africans about the state of the country.
He began by reminding the people gathered in the Parliament that they were there to pay homage to the soldiers who are in the "mission to restore peace in the East of the DRC."
, and he also read their names. He said, "Mr. President of the Parliament, you helped us to honor these heroes, and I ordered that the national flag be lowered to half-mast, in honor of these heroes. It will last for a week and will start on February 07, 2025 in the morning.”
President Ramaphosa said that these soldiers, together with other SADC members, risked their lives to protect and preserve the rights of Congolese people. In response to these words to protect the people of the DRC, the members of the South African Parliament raised their voices and shouted, especially since they have been showing that they do not support this "peacekeeping mission" in the DRC, accusing it of protecting the interests of President Ramaphosa and other important people.
President Ramaphosa continued, “Those soldiers helped those people live in peace and security.
They lost their lives not to threaten the natural resources or the land, but they lost their lives to silence the arms on this continent for good. We thank you.”
It was on January 26, 2025 that the first news was published that 13 soldiers, including those in the UN peacekeeping mission in the RDC (MONUSCO) and those in the SADC "mission to restore peace in the RDC," were killed in the fighting in that country. At the time it was announced that the dead included nine South Africans, three from Malawi and one from Uruguay, but the number will increase and the dead are said to have reached 14 on the South African side.
These are issues that have caused a stir in South Africa, where MPs criticized the explanation of the Minister of Defence, Angelina Matsie Motshekga, who said that the army is restoring peace in the DRC, saying that they went to fight for an incomprehensible reason and should be withdrawn from there.
It is expected that the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Economic and Development Community (SADC) will meet and discuss this controversial SAMIDRC mission.
However, there are countries that have started to withdraw, where on February 5, 2025, the President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, ordered the leadership of the Army to start preparing the way to transfer the soldiers of that country who are in the war in Eastern Congo. SADC troops have been in North Kivu since December 2023.
Initially, 5,000 troops were sent, including 2,900 from South Africa leading the mission, and another 2,100 from Tanzania and Malawi. On June 26, 2024, it was announced that SADC sent more troops to Goma, from the 5,000 that were in North Kivu, to more than 9,000.
It is said that South Africa added 2600 troops, Tanzania added 750, Malawi added 1000.
However, these forces did not produce the results expected by the RDC government, because they did not replace the M23 in the areas it captured, but increased it.
