Southern African bloc pledges support for DRC as rebels push on

Southern African leaders pledged "unwavering" backing to the Democratic Republic of Congo after advances by the Rwanda-backed M23 group, which captured the biggest city in its mineral-rich east.

The southern African grouping SADC also called at crisis talks in Zimbabwe for leaders from eastern and southern African to meet over the escalating conflict in the eastern DRC.

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 on Friday after the talks.

The DRC is one of the 16 member nations of the regional grouping, and its President Felix Tshisekedi attended the meeting in Harare virtually.

Soldiers killed

The talks were convened after 13 soldiers from South Africa and three from Malawi, both SADC members, were killed in recent fighting around the DRC city of Goma, where they were deployed as part of regional peacekeeping efforts.

After seizing Goma, the M23 advanced south through a neighbouring province on Friday and have vowed to march all the way to the DRC capital Kinshasa.

The Harare meeting backed calls for a joint summit of the SADC and the eight-country East African Community "to deliberate on the way forward regarding the security situation in the DRC".

It also mandated its defence grouping to engage all parties to the conflict on a ceasefire process and reiterated support for mediation efforts led by Angola and Kenya.

Return to negotiations

Angola's President Joao Lourenco, the African Union-appointed mediator in the conflict, did not attend the meeting but released a statement Friday urging Rwanda and the DRC to return to negotiations.

The leaders of the neighbouring countries should meet in Luanda "as a matter of urgency", he said.

Lourenco had called both men to meet in Luanda in mid-December but Rwanda's President Paul Kagame did not attend after his DRC counterpart refused to agree to talks with the M23.

Kagame attended a summit Wednesday by the East African Community but Tshisekedi was absent.

Rwanda has never admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 group but alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by former Hutu leaders who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Peacekeeping mission

SADC deployed the peacekeeping mission to the eastern DRC in December 2023.

Regional heavyweight South Africa dominates the force, which is estimated to number around 1,300 troops, but Malawi an d Tanzania also contribute troops.

The summit statement said the objectives of the peacekeeping mission "have not yet been realised".

It called for the immediate dispatch of defence officials from the three countries with peacekeeping troops in the country to ensure they are safe and to facilitate the repatriation of the dead and wounded.

"The peace and security of our region is a shared obligation," Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the current SADC chairman, said in opening remarks to the meeting.

"To this end, our region stands ready to intensify efforts to protect SADC citizens from all forms of instability in line with the SADC Mutual Defence Pact," he said.

The pact states that an armed attack on one SADC member would be considered a threat to regional peace and security and "shall be met with immediate collective action".

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