South Africa has sent additional troops and military
equipment to Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days, political and
diplomatic sources said, after 14 of its soldiers were killed
in fighting with Rwanda-backed rebels last month.
The South African reinforcement comes amid fears that
fighting in eastern Congo could spark a broader war in a powderkeg region that
has over the past three decades witnessed genocide, cross-border conflicts and
dozens of uprisings.
Flight data reviewed by Reuters showed transport aircraft
flying from South Africa to Lubumbashi, in southern Congo. An airport employee
there confirmed that military planes had landed last week.
"We have been informed of a (South African National
Defence Force) troop build-up in the area of Lubumbashi. We gather that
approximately 700-800 soldiers had been flown to Lubumbashi," Chris
Hattingh, a South African lawmaker, wrote in a text message to Reuters.
Hattingh, the defence spokesperson for the Democratic
Alliance, a member of the governing coalition, said it was "difficult to
figure out what is exactly unfolding" because parliament's defence
committee had not been briefed.
The SANDF spokesperson said on Friday he was not aware of
the deployment to Lubumbashi and declined to comment further on Monday. A
Congolese army spokesperson said he could not confirm or deny the deployment.
South Africa's MK party filed a treason complaint on Monday
against a group championing the white Afrikaner minority
Lubumbashi is about 1,500 km (930 miles) south of Goma, the
eastern city on Rwanda's border that the M23 rebels seized last month during an
offensive that has killed over 2,000 people and displaced hundreds of
thousands.
South Africa is believed to have around 3,000 troops
deployed in Congo, both as part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission and a Southern
African regional force tasked with helping Congo's army combat the M23
insurgency.
‘Not our war’
Its intervention has drawn heavy criticism
at home after the fall of Goma left South African soldiers surrounded
and with no clear exit strategy.
"They're extremely poorly resourced and equipped,"
said Kobus Marais, who served as the DA's shadow defence minister before the
party entered a governing coalition last year. "This is not our war."
Marais, now a defence analyst who said he was being kept
abreast of the situation, said the flights to Lubumbashi carried medicine,
ammunition and consumables. The additional troops were to assist in the case of
further clashes and as a deterrent as negotiations to end the fighting get
underway.
An IL-76 cargo plane with the tail number EX-76008 made five
round-trip flights from Pretoria to Lubumbashi between January 30 and February
7, according to flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.
The flights left from the south side of Pretoria, where the
South African air force has a base.
An employee in Lubumbashi airport told Reuters on Saturday
that he had seen several rotations of aircraft bringing troops and equipment.
Three diplomats and a minister from a country in the region said they were
aware of the deployment.
With M23 rebels controlling Goma's airport, South African
troops there are cut off from resupplies.
"The pattern of chartered cargo flights under SANDF
callsigns from South Africa to both Lubumbashi and locations inside
(neighbouring) Burundi points to the likely creation of some type of additional
contingency force," said a defence expert who asked not to be named.
Two successive wars in the 1990s and 2000s grew out of the
Rwandan genocide, drawing in a half dozen of Congo's neighbours and killing
millions, mainly through hunger and disease.
Uganda and Burundi,
which already have thousands of troops in eastern Congo, are also
reinforcing their positions.
Rwanda rejects accusations that thousands of its troops are
fighting alongside M23, while African leaders have urged the parties to
hold talks.