The second batch of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) consisting 300 on Monday left for Goma, the capital of North Kivu in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Gen. Chol Thon Balok, the Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs flagged off the soldiers at Juba International Airport who will be part of the East African Regional Force deployed to DRC on peacekeeping mission.
“This is not the first; this is the second group, the first group left by land through Western Equatoria State to DR Congo and they are a battalion comprising 750 soldiers,” Balok told journalists.
In December 2022, President Salva Kiir Mayardit flagged off 750 SSPDF soldiers for the mission.
Deng Dau Deng, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said the contingent will join their Kenyan, Ugandan and Burundian counterparts to help the Congolese government battle rebels who now control key villages in the restive eastern DRC.
“The objective of this force is to provide support to the headquarter where the Kenyan component and Burundian component are based. We want to inform the world that South Sudan is very much concerned about regional peace and stability,” Deng said.
He said the soldiers will maintain discipline in their mission.
“Our forces are much disciplined, they have been taught humanitarian law and they have been advised on how they can conduct themselves in respecting human rights and providing protection to IDPs,” Deng said.
Since late March, March 23rd (M23) rebels have been on the offensive in DRC’s northeastern province of North Kivu, with thousands of civilians displaced by ongoing fighting.
Kenyan former President Uhuru Kenyatta in June, last year called for the immediate deployment of a new regional military force to try to stop rebel violence in eastern DRC, where dozens of armed groups have been active for more than two decades.
