Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister Moven Mahachi on Wednesday denied the country was withdrawing its troops from the DRC, Reuters reported. He said the troops had “been pulled back from a river town only as a way to rest soldiers serving in the DRC”. “What was reported was a rest and recuperation exercise which involves the movement of troops within the DRC and not withdrawal,” Reuters quoted him as saying on the state news agency ZIANA. However, his comments on ZIANA contradicted statements by both soldiers and officials on Tuesday, when about 200 Zimbabwean soldiers flew out of the town of Mbandaka, northeast of Kinshasa, Reuters noted. Some soldiers had said they were bound for Kinshasa and then for Harare and were looking forward to seeing their families after a long absence. It quoted officials as saying that three Zimbabwean battalions, totalling around 2,000 troops, were soon due to leave Mbandaka in a “gesture of our commitment to peace”. At least 10,000 Zimbabwean soldiers are deployed in the DRC.
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