JOHANNESBURG: The southern African regional bloc decided on Thursday to end its military deployment to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where it lost more than a dozen soldiers in conflict in January.

The 16-nation Southern African Development Community, or SADC, decided at a virtual summit on the conflict in the area that has seen some three decades of unrest and claimed millions of lives.

The “summit terminated the mandate of SAMIDRC and directed the commencement of a phased withdrawal of SAMIDRC troops from the DRC,” it said in a statement at the end of the meeting.

The SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or SAMIDRC, — made up of soldiers from Malawi, Tanzania, and South Africa — was sent to the region in December 2023 to help the government of the DRC, also SADC member, restore peace and security. South Africa lost 14 soldiers in the eastern DRC conflict in January. 

Most were from the SAMIDRC mission, but at least two were deployed as part of a separate UN peacekeeping mission.

Three Malawian troops in the SADC deployment were also killed, while Tanzania said two of its soldiers died in clashes.

Calls have been mounting in South Africa for the soldiers still in the DRC to be withdrawn, with reports that they are confined to their base by M23 fighters. Malawi in February, ordered its military to prepare for a withdrawal.