127 SANDF members back in SA, receiving care

The soldiers started arriving in the country on Tuesday.  

The wounded troops were part of a mission sent by the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc in 2023 to help quell unrest in the eastern parts of the DRC.

On Thursday, the SANDF confirmed four critically injured patients have been admitted, and 17 others with more moderate injuries are also receiving treatment at the One Military Hospital.

One hundred and six members are currently receiving psychosocial debriefing.

In total, 127 patients are in the medical care of the army.

This comes as the last of the funerals for the 14 fallen soldiers killed in the DRC were held this past weekend.

In its statement, the SANDF has asked members of the public to accord privacy to its members and their families as they heal.

READ MORE: Remains of SANDF fallen soldiers handed over to families

South Africa dominates the SADC force, which is estimated to number around 1,300, with Malawi and Tanzania also contributing soldiers.

Earlier this month, Malawi ordered its troops to prepare to withdraw from DRC.

South Africa has suffered 14 casualties in the raging conflict that has provoked fears of a regional war.

Most of the casualties were part of the SADC mission.

At least two of those killed were in a separate UN-mandated peacekeeping force.

The M23 group is supported by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, according to UN experts.

It has wrested control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu and Goma, the main city in the country's perennially volatile east.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in the fighting since January, DR Congo's Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

She said the number includes "more than 2,500 bodies buried without being identified", adding that another 1,500 bodies were still in the morgue.

AFP has not been able to verify these figures.

*Additional reporting by AFP

ALSO READ: