The South African government has extended the mandate of its forces taking part in a UN peace keeping mission in DRC.
The mandate of other SA soldiers in peace keeping missions in Sudan’s Darfur region and other Southern African Development Community countries will also be extended.
The South African soldiers will be in DRC for one more year taking part in the Force Intervention Brigade, part of the U.N. MONUSCO peacekeeping operation in the Great Lakes country.
The deployment of 1,388 troops in the DR Congo and 850 troops in Darfur Sudan has been extended by one year to March 31, 2016, according to a statement by the presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj.
The intervention brigade has been given a special mandate to take on armed groups who have terrorized and created instability for years in the poor but mineral-rich region.
U.N. and Congolese troops launched strikes in January against the remnants of a Burundian rebel group based in the borderlands of Eastern Congo.
However, MONUSCO in February paused its support for a campaign against another rebel group – the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda – after Congo named to top posts two generals suspected of human rights violations.
The operation is now going ahead without U.N. support.
