Ramaphosa’s reinforcement of forces in DRC, a violation of commitment towards SADC-EAC

In a sheer act of duplicity against the previous SADC-EAC Heads of States summit, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa has instructed his army commander to deploy an additional 700 troops to DRC, with an offensive mission to fight alongside Tshisekedi’s FARDC.

Several reports coming from DRC indicate that the 700 South African National Defense Forces (SANDF) troops along with military equipment landed in Lubumbashi (far southeast of DRC) over the weekend, to reinforce the already deployed force serving under SAMIDRC mandate.

This is in shameless breach of what has been agreed in the recent SADC-EAC Heads of States summit, which prioritized dialogue and political solutions instead of military confrontations.

Ramaphosa, who attended the summit in Dar es Salaam and personally endorsed provisions advocating for peaceful and political resolutions to the DRC crisis, wasted no time in breaking his commitment upon returning home.

Prior to the SADC-EAC summit, some countries like Malawi and Tanzania had started to pull-out their national forces from DRC not only because it exposed some of its men to danger while fighting against the mighty M23, they realized President Tshisekedi’s FARDC was fighting alongside a genocidal force like FDLR and did not have a clear mandate.

The greedy Ramaphosa who sent his army in DRC to fight for personal interests, is the same individual that’s been begging Rwanda to help repatriate dozens of his soldiers, who died during the recent fighting in Goma that saw M23 capture the city.

Rwanda whole-heartedly granted the request, and helped repatriate bodies of the fallen SANDF soldiers.

Meanwhile, the same SANDF has two battalions stranded in Mubambiro, Goma, following its fall to AFC-M23. According to reports from Goma the stranded soldiers have been begging Ramaphosa to negotiate with M23 for their peaceful repatriation. But the duplicitous Ramaphosa, who likes posturing like some tough guy, reneged, leaving their fate into the hands of M23.

Lucky for them M23 aren’t war criminals!

From the look of things Ramaphosa, Tshisekedi and Burundi’s Ndayishimiye have definitely chosen to proceed with their military follies in DRC. M23, a force fighting for equal rights and justice, has proven more than capable of routing anything that the coalition of Tshisekedi, Ramaphosa and Ndayishimiye can throw at them.

Expect more of the same.