Nine S. African peacekeepers killed in DR Congo
Two of the fatalities were from the United Nation’s MONUSCO force
Guatemalan soldiers of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) secure the evacuation of their non essential civil personnel in Goma on January 25, 2025.
JOSPIN MWISHA / AFP
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Nine South African peacekeepers have been killed in clashes with M23 forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including two from United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force MONUSCO, the defense ministry said Saturday.
“In the course of this gallant resistance against M23 rebels, the South African National Defense Force lost nine members by Friday, January 24, 2025, after two days of fierce fighting,” it said in a statement.
Seven were part of the regional force sent by the Southern African Development Community and two were UN peacekeepers, it added.
The number of wounded was still being confirmed, the statement said.
Earlier the Democratic Alliance, one of the parties in South Africa’s coalition government, had put the toll at three dead and 18 wounded from clashes on Thursday.
The latest update was the first confirmation of casualties from the South African military.
After two days of fighting, the statement said, “the South African contingent and its counterparts” had managed to halt the advance of M23 fighters on Goma, eastern DRC.
“Our forces were not only able to halt the M23 advancement but were able to push them back,” the statement added.
Fighting has raged in the region despite calls from the international community for the Rwandan-backed M23 to halt its advance on Goma, the key city in the mineral-rich east and home to more than a million people.