Two South African soldiers were killed and three were injured after a mortar hit their post in eastern Congo amid heightened turmoil in the region, the South African armed forces said Thursday.
The South African National Defence Force, which supervises all of the country’s military forces, said it suspected the mortar explosion on Wednesday was caused by “indirect fire” and that an inquiry was ongoing to discover who was to blame.
South Africa has deployed soldiers to Congo as part of the Southern African Development Community’s effort to combat armed rebel groups in the east.
South Africa said this week that it would deploy a new contingent of 2,900 soldiers to eastern Congo. It was not immediately clear whether those slain and injured were part of the new deployment.
Siphiwe Dlamini, spokesperson for the South African National Defence Force, said the base was targeted in North Kivu province. The injured were brought to a hospital in Goma.
Violence in the conflict-torn region has escalated in recent weeks, with many blaming attacks on the M23 rebel group, which has been fighting Congolese forces in the area for years.
The Congolese government claims M23 receives military help from neighboring Rwanda, which Rwanda rejects.
However, M23 has hinted in recent remarks that it is launching a fresh offensive in eastern Congo, raising concerns that the group is targeting Goma, which it captured ten years ago.
Since November, the war has displaced more than 1 million people, according to relief groups. This adds to the 6.9 million people who have already abandoned their homes in one of the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophes.
On Thursday, the Norwegian Refugee Council stated that armed groups’ recent march on the crucial town of Sake, near Goma, “poses an imminent threat to the entire aid system” in eastern Congo.
“The isolation of Goma, home to over 2 million people and hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals who have fled clashes with armed groups, would bring disastrous consequences to the region,” the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) stated.
