South Africa will withdraw its 700 troops from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo before the end of the year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Saturday.
The presidency said Ramaphosa informed UN Secretary-General António Guterres of the government’s decision to pull its soldiers from the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO).
The decision comes after Pretoria repatriated hundreds of troops from another military mission last year following the deaths of 17 South African soldiers in escalating conflict between government forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group. The troops had been deployed under a Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission.
According to the presidency, the withdrawal reflects the need to “consolidate and realign the resources of the South African National Defence Force” after 27 years supporting UN peacekeeping efforts in DRC.
South Africa ranks among the top 10 troop contributors to MONUSCO.
Conflict in eastern DRC escalated in early 2025 as M23 seized large areas of territory and key cities. Calls for South Africa to withdraw from the resource-rich region mounted in January 2025 after several soldiers were killed, including at least two deployed under the UN.
On Wednesday, M23 claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a key airport in Kisangani, several hundred kilometres from the armed group’s usual area of operations.
The opposition Democratic Alliance said the withdrawal was overdue. DA spokesperson on defence and military veterans Chris Hattingh said the previous SADC deployment exposed serious failures in combat readiness, with troops lacking adequate force protection, air support, logistics and medical evacuation capability. He said the SANDF suffered from shrinking budgets, ageing equipment and collapsing maintenance, and called for full parliamentary briefings on the withdrawal and accountability.
The United Nations has said it will soon send a mission to the volatile region to help enforce a ceasefire.
Qatar has mediated between the Congolese government and M23 for several months. A commitment towards a ceasefire was signed in July. In a parallel effort, DRC and Rwanda formalised a US-brokered peace deal in December in Washington.
The South African government said it would continue supporting other multilateral efforts by SADC, the UN and the African Union to bring lasting peace to DRC.
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