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A Zimbabwean soldier serving with Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) forces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was repatriated on Wednesday from Rwanda after serving 17 months as a prisoner of war, a Zimbabwe defence force statement said.
The soldier, Corporal Wilfred Manembe, 39, was evacuated on medical grounds aboard an aircraft chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC}. He was captured on 17 September, 1998, in the strategic railway junction town of Kabalo in Shaba Province.
"He was serving with his unit, 32 Infantry battalion when his squad, a group of 16 soldiers, was accidentally deployed by aircraft onto an enemy-held airstrip," the statement said. "The squad fought until it ran out of ammunition, thus leading to the capture of the first Zimbabweans by the DRC invaders and rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda." It said he was the second of the 16 soldiers repatriated on medical grounds.
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