{"id":7222,"date":"2013-07-16T05:32:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T05:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7222"},"modified":"2013-07-16T05:32:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-16T05:32:38","slug":"sa-troops-caught-between-fighting-factions-in-drc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7222","title":{"rendered":"SA troops caught between fighting factions in DRC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hercules<\/a>
Hercules C-130 with Monusco cargo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South African soldiers are caught between M23 rebels and government forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n

Fighting erupted anew in the war-torn east of the DRC on Sunday and continued yesterday after about 100 armed men disguised in women’s clothing entered the country from Rwanda, said local sources.<\/p>\n

Soldiers of 6 SA Infantry Battalion have been deployed in the DRC in a United Nations “intervention brigade”.<\/p>\n

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The intervention brigade consists of 2069 soldiers, of whom 850 are South African, and falls under the authority of the UN’s broader 19000-strong Monusco peacekeeping mission in the Congo.<\/p>\n

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Unlike the peacekeeping force, the brigade, which also has Tanzanian and Malawian contingents, has been mandated to engage any group that tries to destabilise the region.<\/p>\n

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Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Prosper Basse, a spokesman for the Monusco force, said yesterday that the South Africans were ”in the middle” of the fierce fighting around Goma, the provincial capital.<\/p>\n

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“The [Monusco] operational base in Monigi has always been a South African base. It is on a hill dominating Goma,” said Basse.<\/p>\n

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The South African troops have been involved in two other clashes in the past week, sparked when another rebel group, the Mai Mai, attacked a nearby M23 base.<\/p>\n

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“The M23 repelled the attack and the Mai Mai turned and started to shoot at civilians and the blue helmets [UN soldiers] to intimidate them. The blue helmets fired warning shots but when they kept on coming we engaged them,” said Basse.<\/p>\n

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One rebel was killed in the fighting and two others were wounded.<\/p>\n

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Heavy calibre weapons were used, including multiple-rocket launchers, mortars and artillery. DRC government forces have been involved in heavy fighting against the M23 rebels since Sunday.<\/p>\n

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SA Defence Ministry spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini said the fighting was taking place in the areas where the South African troops are deployed.<\/p>\n

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“We are not involved,” he said.<\/p>\n

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The South African base was formerly held by M23 rebels but was taken by Monusco after the two M23 factions started fighting each other, leaving a gap for the UN force to move in. – Sapa-AP, AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African soldiers are caught between M23 rebels and government forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fighting erupted anew in the war-torn east of the DRC on Sunday and continued yesterday after about 100 armed men disguised in women’s clothing entered the country from Rwanda, said local sources. Soldiers of 6 SA Infantry … Continue reading “SA troops caught between fighting factions in DRC”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[949,2192,2194,772],"class_list":["post-7222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-drc","tag-m23","tag-monusco","tag-sandf"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/monusco.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7224,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7222\/revisions\/7224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}