SA troops prepare for battle in Congo bolstered by UN ‘combat’ resolution
More ‘clear-cut’ Un-backed initiative may be more successful than debacle in CAR
SA HAS committed itself to sending a battalion of troops to spearhead offensive operations against an array of irregular but war-hardened forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo — weeks after taking losses against rebels in the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR).
A spokesman for 20,000 United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the Congo, Madnodje Mounoubai, said yesterday the first of the South African National Defence Force ( SANDF) soldiers were expected by the month-end.
Three battalions from SA, Tanzania and Malawi will make up the 3,069-strong force, called an intervention brigade, headquartered in Goma, the capital of the chronically unstable North Kivu province. An SANDF battalion at full strength numbers 850 soldiers. The brigade’s mission, spelt out in UN Security Council resolution 2098 of March 28, is to neutralise and disarm M23 rebels and other armed groups.
The SANDF confirmed the planned deployment to the eastern Congo at the weekend but yesterday refused to comment on the timing and other details. The budgeted cost of the operation and the paymasters have not been made public so far.
“We are not in charge of the DRC operations. It belongs to the UN peacekeeping authority and only the UN can speak on that matter,” head of SANDF communications Siphiwe Dlamini said.
His colleague, Brig-Gen Xolani Mabanga, said earlier that serving soldiers knew the risks when they joined up and were prepared to die for SA. “We are not scared to go to war. We are not scared to go anywhere we are asked to go.”
His words carried added weight after the funerals at the weekend of the 13 SANDF paratroopers killed in the CAR on March 23 by Seleka rebels.
They were part of an SANDF force of about 200 sent to Bangui in January. Their official mission was to protect a unit of instructors but President Jacob Zuma and his ministers have faced a bombardment of questions from sceptics inside and outside Parliament. They suspect self-interested business motives among African National Congress bigwigs playing a role. Both the government and party deny such motives.
On paper, the Congo operation is more clear-cut and has international backing. The brigade in which South African troops will serve will be part of Monusco (the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in Congo) and under the orders of its force commander.
Monusco is the biggest UN peacekeeping force in the world, but it was derided as purposeless
when its troops stood by and allowed M23 rebels to walk into Goma last November.
In contrast, the new brigade has a peace-enforcing mandate, valid for a year, which was adopted despite misgivings by Security Council members that the UN peacekeepers’ neutrality and impartiality will be compromised.
The resolution gives the brigade the job of going on the offensive against M23 and other armed groups “in a robust, highly mobile and versatile manner”. It can fight alongside the Congolese army if it chooses, which will dismay many Congolese opposed to the government in Kinshasa of President Joseph Kabila.
Military analyst Helmoed Heitman said a key question was whether SA’s thinly stretched military would find another battalion to join the brigade or simply redeploy its battalion with Monusco in the eastern Congo.
“If it’s the latter, it makes no sense because if you have a strike force, like the brigade, you need to have static forces there as well to keep control of what you have won,” Mr Heitman said. The UN resolution states the brigade will have artillery, but he queried what air capacity it would have.
Democratic Alliance defence spokesman David Maynier said that after the debacle in the CAR, Mr Zuma should inform Parliament fully about the reasons for the deployment in Congo.
Last night, an open letter purportedly sent by M23 president Bertrand Bisimwa, dated April 3, to SA’s “Parliament and people”, urged them to convince the government “not to send their sons and daughters of their good nation in an absurd war against their Congolese brothers”.