The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will withdraw its peacekeeping troops from the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), opting instead to push for a diplomatic and political solution to the ongoing conflict.
- The 14-month mission, which mainly includes troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania, replaced a similar force drawn from the East African Community (EAC)
- The ‘phased withdrawal’ is a turn around from a 2024 decision to extend the mission’s mandate and is likely informed by the casualties SADC troops have suffered in recent months.
- SADC’s decision adds a new twist to the conflict, where rebel group M23 and its allies have been seizing territory with increasing success.
The bloc’s decision came just a day after Angolan President Joao Lourenco said that the DRC government and M23 would start ‘direct peace’ talks in Luanda on March 18th. A prominent M23 leader called such negotiations ‘the only civilised option’ to ending the worsening conflict.
The Kinshasa government has also offered the United States a mining deal as part of its efforts to bolster Western support against the conflict in the eastern part of the country. While the details of the proposal are still scanty, reports indicate that the DRC wants the US to train and equip its military, ostensibly to protect supply routes. DRC is likely banking on Washington’s current negotiations with Ukraine over mineral rights and military support to exemplify how its proposal would work, but the dynamics are significantly different.
Kinshasa has said that its push for a deal is driven by its desire to cut out smugglers, including its neighbours. DRC and Rwanda have had increasingly fraught diplomatic relations, with Kinshasa accusing its neighbour of supporting M23 and looting minerals from the country.
