South Sudan will send 750 soldiers to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo soon to join a regional force fighting a rebel offensive, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
Fierce fighting in recent months between Congolese troops and the M23 rebel group prompted the East African Community (EAC) bloc to deploy a joint regional force to quell the violence, with Kenya and Uganda also sending soldiers to the DRC.
South Sudanese soldiers “will leave for the DR Congo as soon as possible,” a spokesman for the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF), Major General Lul Ruai Koang, said during a ceremony in the capital Juba.
The 750-strong battalion has been undergoing training for more than six months for their deployment, he added.
At the Juba event, President Salva Kiir instructed the troops to “keep order”, urging them to “protect the civilians and their properties from any harm”.
The ceremony came barely four months after thousands of fighters including former rebels loyal to Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, were integrated into South Sudan’s army —a key condition of a peace deal to end the country’s brutal civil war.
Nearly 400,000 people died during the 2013-2018 conflict.
