ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: SA’s chaotic journey in DRC comes to an uneasy end
It was a dangerous peace-enforcement operation and not a traditional peacekeeping mission
The announcement that the 15-month 1,300-strong SA-led Southern African Development Community (Sadc) force — also involving Tanzania and Malawi — would be withdrawing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the deaths of 14 South African soldiers, represents a calamitous blow to SA’s credibility as a regional power.
This mission has been a chaotic journey without maps, conducted without much strategic vision as to the means of achieving the quixotic mandate of restoring the DRC’s territorial sovereignty, working with the country’s ragtag, ill-disciplined army to neutralise armed militants in an eastern region with more than 100 armed groups waging a 30-year conflict...
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