South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) have started preparations to withdraw over 1000 troops from the restive neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), nearly a year after deploying as part of the East African regional force.
Maj.Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, the spokesperson for the SSPDF said plans are underway to withdraw South Sudanese troops that have been deployed since December 2022 in the eastern North Kivu region to quell fighting between the DRC government troops and the March 23rd Movement (M23) rebel group.
“They (soldiers) will be coming home soon; I don’t know the actual date yet. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo decided not to renew the mandate of the regional forces that were deployed in their country,” Koang told The Dawn on Monday in Juba.
This came after the East African Community regional force started withdrawing from the country after the DRC, a member of the seven-nation regional bloc decided not to renew the force’s mandate beyond December 8, 2023.
The future of the deployment was thrown into doubt after President Felix Tshisekedi and local residents accused the force of cohabiting with the rebels rather than forcing them to lay down arms.
The Kenyan government started withdrawing it’s soldiers last week from the conflict stricken eastern part of DRC.
In December 2022, President Salva Kiir Mayardit flagged off the first contingent of 750 SSPDF soldiers to DRC by road through Western Equatoria.
South Sudan deployed another batch consisting of 300 soldiers in April 2023 to the volatile region of DRC, joining other countries in the regional bloc such as Burundi, Kenya and Uganda to contribute peacekeeping troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
