The communications officer for the SANDF denies information about the surrender of its soldiers to the M23 rebels

The spokesperson for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Siphiwe Dlamini has denied, Wednesday, April 3, during a meeting with the press in Goma in North Kivu, the claims that two of its soldiers surrendered to the M23 rebels.

For Siphiwe Dlamini, all their soldiers deployed in the DRC are indeed at their posts. This is not the first time that the military has faced such allegations regarding its actions on the ground in the DRC, he recalled, noting that several groundless articles are often written against the SANDF since its deployment in the DRC as part of the SADC military mission (SAMIDRC).

The South African army, he emphasized, considers these allegations as a serious attempt to discredit it in the public eye. It announces that it will not stand idly by in the face of this.

In this clarification, the SANDF was thus responding to an article by an American media outlet published Tuesday, April 2, which claimed that several South African soldiers deployed within the force, poorly equipped and prepared, had surrendered to the M23 rebels last week and are now being held hostage.

Boni Tsala