Goma, (Congo): The first contingent of South Sudan’s army has arrived in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern Congo, under the mandate of the regional force of the East African Community (EAC).
Composed of about 40 military personnel, the first South Sudanese contingent, transported by the Kenyan Army plane, will be deployed around Goma for peacekeeping operations, Xinhua news agency reported.
“As of this Sunday and during the coming week, we begin the deployment of our colleagues from South Sudan who will join the other colleagues already deployed on the ground,” Emmanuel Kaputa, Deputy Commander of the EAC regional force, declared at the Goma airport.
This deployment came a few days after the deployment of nearly 1,000 Ugandan soldiers in the territory of Rutshuru of North Kivu.
South Sudan is, therefore, the fourth country to officially join the EAC regional force aimed at ending the violence in eastern Congo, after Kenya, Burundi and Uganda.
In 2022, the EAC countries set up a regional force to intervene in eastern Congo, in particular, to stem the advance of the March 23 Movement rebel group.
Although initially greeted with enthusiasm, many Congolese are increasingly critical of the EAC force because of dashed hopes that regional troops would take the fight directly to the M23.
On Sunday, the spokesman for the newly deployed Ugandan contingent Captain Kato Ahmad Hassan said the troops will be “neutral force and we will not fight the M23”.
M23 fighters are expected to withdraw from the areas occupied by the Ugandan military under the plan, he said.
The rebel group remains in control of substantial areas of North Kivu, and has almost completely surrounded Goma, which has Rwanda to its east and Lake Kivu to its south.
The DRC accuses its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the M23, something the United States, several other Western countries and independent UN experts agree with, but which Kigali denies.
