1. Home
  2. Southern Africa
  3. Zimbabwe

DRC intervention

Senior military sources in Zimbabwe told IRIN on Thursday that the Harare government would wait until Rwanda and Uganda withdraw from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), before scaling down its own intervention force. An estimated 10,000 Zimbabwean troops have been fighting for embattled President Laurent-Desire Kabila of the DRC in the eastern parts of the country against Rwandan and Ugandan backed rebel forces. According to the source, the Zimbabwean intervention had successfully blocked the rebel advance, but there had been a 10 to 15 percent casualty rate mainly through disease. "Our air superiority was vital in getting the upper hand," one Zimbabwean military officer who recently returned from Lubumbashi in eastern DRC told IRIN. He added: "We have stabilised the situation. Congolese [government] forces can now hold down the rebels, if Uganda and Rwanda stop supporting them." However, other Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) military experts said that the high economic costs were a much greater reason for Zimbabwe to pull out of the DRC. "Their DRC intervention has been an economic disaster for Zimbabwe," one analyst told IRIN. "The government can not sustain the level of involvement when ordinary Zimbabweans think troops have been sent to defend government investments and not national or regional interests." One South Africa military expert told IRIN that he did not believe that the Zimbabwean military knew why they were in the DRC. "No-one wants the rebels to sign the Lusaka peace proposal more than Zimbabwe. But a critical element will be the withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwanda. Without that Zimbabwe is stuck in the DRC," he said. Recently the UN said that it would provide small contingent military liaison officers and civilian staff as part of a plan to help the regional mediators of the DRC peace process implement the Lusaka ceasefire which rebel forces are due to sign.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join