{The government yesterday announced that a confrontation with Forces for Democratic Liberation of Rwanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo was “inevitable”.}<\/p>\n
Four thousand FDLR soldiers, many of whom were involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, terrorise the eastern DRC.<\/p>\n
The looming fight comes after the FDLR ignored the UN’s January 2 disarmament deadline.<\/p>\n
Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesman Clayson Monyela said: “The FDLR has failed to comply with the deadline. It renders a military option inevitable.”<\/p>\n
South Africa has 1000 troops in the DRC as part of the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade, which is tasked with “neutralising” threats to the region.<\/p>\n
Last year, South African troops fought against M23 rebels in several fierce battles.<\/p>\n
Military analyst Helmoed Heitman warned the latest task will not be easy.<\/p>\n
“Defeating the M23 was luck. It helped that they were caught by surprise by South Africa’s attack helicopters.<\/p>\n
“Like any other guerrilla force, they simply disappeared into the forests. They were not defeated.”<\/p>\n
Heitman said FDLR, while not as organised as the M23, had been around longer and was battle-hardened.<\/p>\n
“They will be difficult to fight. Although not as sophisticated [as the M23], they must be found to be defeated. Once found, an effective military presence must be maintained. Like any guerrilla war this will take nearly a decade.<\/p>\n
“The FDLR won’t take on heavily armed South Africans. It will be guerrilla warfare, where, for counter-insurgency operations, 10 troops are needed for every one guerrilla. This is because of their terrain knowledge and blending in with civilians. [Our] troops need to protect both civilians and property while fighting.<\/p>\n
“Stabilising an area requires 20 troops per 1000 population. With over 6.5million people in this area it requires 130000 troops.”<\/p>\n
Times Live<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{The government yesterday announced that a confrontation with Forces for Democratic Liberation of Rwanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo was “inevitable”.} Four thousand FDLR soldiers, many of whom were involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, terrorise the eastern DRC. The looming fight comes after the FDLR ignored the UN’s January 2 disarmament deadline. Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000055847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-18249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000055847,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18249.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18249.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18249.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18249.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18249.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton18249.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000055847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18249"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=18249"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=18249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}