South Africa Ends 27-Year DR Congo Peacekeeping Mission

South Africa has completed the withdrawal of its last peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, closing out a 27-year military commitment that began with a single liaison officer in 1999 and ended, in September 2026, with the quiet return of a 39-strong “rear party” tasked with handing over the last equipment and bases. The drawdown, run under the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) Operation Mistral, formally ends South Africa’s contribution to the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and follows a separate, more violent exit from the regional SADC force a year earlier.

What Happened

According to DefenceWeb, the SANDF’s final MONUSCO contingent of 324 personnel landed back in South Africa on 21 July 2026, flown out of Beni and Goma on two Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft making daily runs in the final weeks of the drawdown. A smaller “rear party” of 39 soldiers, left behind to close operational units and complete the handover of remaining installations, followed on 21 September 2026, which DefenceWeb and the SANDF marked as the formal end of Operation Mistral.

Major General Godfrey Thulare, General Officer Commanding Joint Operations Headquarters, welcomed the returning troops and described the withdrawal as bringing “a dignified conclusion” to South Africa’s peacekeeping effort in the DRC, according to DefenceWeb’s report on the final return.

The MONUSCO drawdown is distinct from, but linked to, an earlier and more abrupt withdrawal: South Africa’s contribution to the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), a separate regional force whose mandate SADC heads of state ended in March 2025 after it suffered heavy losses fighting the Rwanda-backed M23/AFC rebel coalition around Goma and Sake. South African, Malawian and Tanzanian soldiers under SAMIDRC were killed or besieged as M23 seized Goma in January 2025; South African media reported 14 SANDF soldiers killed between 23 and 27 January 2025 in some of the heaviest single-incident losses the post-apartheid SANDF has suffered. SAMIDRC troops began leaving the DRC on 29 April 2025.

Operation Mistral and the MONUSCO Mandate

South Africa’s UN engagement in the Congo dates to 1999, when it sent a single officer to the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC). The deployment grew over the following decade into infantry, air, engineering and medical contingents. When the UN Security Council created MONUSCO in 2010, South African troops became part of its Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) — the first UN peacekeeping force explicitly mandated to conduct offensive combat operations against armed groups, alongside contingents from Tanzania and Malawi.

By early 2026, South Africa’s remaining MONUSCO contribution stood at roughly 700 personnel, according to South African government and UN statements cited by South African outlets reporting President Cyril Ramaphosa’s notification to UN Secretary-General António Guterres of the decision to withdraw entirely. Over the full 27-year commitment, SANDF units deployed to the DRC included the 21 SA Infantry Battalion, 44 Parachute Regiment paratroopers, a composite helicopter unit flying Denel-built Rooivalk attack helicopters and Oryx transport helicopters, intelligence and air medical evacuation teams.

The human cost accumulated steadily: South African officials have said more than 50 SANDF members died in the DRC over the full deployment from combat, accidents and other causes, in addition to the 14 lost in the January 2025 M23 offensive.

A Contested Homecoming

The final phase of the withdrawal was not without controversy. Returning soldiers were placed under a mandatory 21-day Ebola-related quarantine at the SANDF’s De Brug mobilisation centre, using tented accommodation that the South African Union of Defence and Security (Sandu) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) criticised as substandard. The EFF argued it was “utterly unacceptable that men and women who risked their lives” for the country should return to such conditions, according to DefenceWeb’s reporting, while health authorities — the World Health Organization and South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases — do not prescribe blanket quarantine for returning Ebola-zone personnel who test negative.

DefenceWeb also reported concern over the roughly R225-million contract covering the airlift of remaining SANDF equipment out of the DRC, after it emerged that some aircraft used were registered in Lesotho (7P-HAR) and Burkina Faso (XT-ABN) with operators not clearly identified, raising questions about compliance with South African and international aviation standards. Separately, a planned transit route through Entebbe, Uganda, was cancelled after Ugandan authorities suspended flights linked to an Ebola outbreak, forcing some personnel onto a reported 12-hour road journey instead.

Why It Matters

South Africa’s exit removes one of MONUSCO’s longer-serving and more combat-capable troop contributors at a moment when the mission itself is shrinking under a UN Security Council-mandated drawdown, and when the underlying conflict it was meant to help contain is far from resolved. M23 and its Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) coalition, backed by Rwanda according to UN experts’ reports, still controls Goma and Bukavu. Diplomatic efforts — the US-brokered Washington Accords signed by the DRC and Rwanda in December 2025, and the separate Doha Framework between Kinshasa and AFC/M23 — have produced roadmaps and declarations but, as of talks held in Switzerland in August 2026, implementation remains behind schedule and the ceasefire fragile.

The withdrawal also illustrates the strain on South Africa’s own armed forces. The SANDF has simultaneously been running Operation Prosper, a roughly 2,200-strong internal border and crime-support deployment across five provinces, and maintaining a standby force of more than 3,000 troops for immigration-related operations — commitments that South African defence analysts and parliamentary committees have cited as competing for the same limited budget, airlift and personnel pool that sustained the DRC mission for nearly three decades.

More broadly, the end of Operation Mistral is a marker of a wider retreat by African troop contributors from direct combat roles in the eastern DRC after the costly 2025 fighting, leaving Kinshasa more dependent on its own armed forces (FARDC), the stalled Doha and Washington diplomatic tracks, and whatever reduced UN presence MONUSCO retains, to manage the M23/AFC conflict going forward.

What Happens Next

MONUSCO’s broader drawdown, already under way under its latest Security Council mandate, continues with other troop-contributing countries; South Africa’s exit adds pressure on the mission’s remaining force generation. In South Africa, parliament’s defence committee has been briefed on both the MONUSCO withdrawal and the earlier SAMIDRC pullout, and has flagged the De Brug quarantine conditions and the equipment-airlift contract for further scrutiny. On the ground in eastern DRC, the durability of the Washington Accords and Doha Framework — both still short of full implementation as of the latest round of talks — will largely determine whether the security vacuum left by departing peacekeepers widens or stabilises.

FAQ

What was Operation Mistral?

Operation Mistral was the SANDF’s internal name for South Africa’s troop contribution to MONUSCO, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is distinct from South Africa’s separate contribution to SAMIDRC, the SADC regional force that withdrew in 2025.

Why did South Africa withdraw from the DRC?

South African officials have pointed to a shift toward the diplomatic track following the Washington Accords and Doha Framework, alongside the heavy losses SANDF troops suffered fighting M23 in January 2025 and competing demands on the SANDF from domestic deployments such as Operation Prosper.

How many South African soldiers died in the DRC?

South African authorities have said more than 50 SANDF personnel died over the 27-year MONUSCO/MONUC commitment from combat, accidents and other causes, including 14 killed in a single M23 offensive between 23 and 27 January 2025.

Is the conflict with M23 in eastern DRC over?

No. M23 and the allied AFC coalition continue to hold Goma and Bukavu. The Washington Accords (December 2025) and Doha Framework have set out ceasefire and political roadmaps, but implementation remained incomplete as of talks held in Switzerland in August 2026.

Does MONUSCO still have other troops in the DRC?

Yes. MONUSCO is undergoing a UN Security Council-mandated drawdown but retains contingents from other troop-contributing countries; South Africa’s withdrawal is one of several national drawdowns affecting the mission’s overall force levels.

Sources

• DefenceWeb, “Operation Mistral over with all SANDF personnel now back from DR Congo,” 2 October 2026 — mission conclusion, final troop numbers, dates, official quotes.
• DefenceWeb, “SANDF’s 27-year Congo deployment ends, but quarantine conditions and equipment repatriation contract draw concern,” July 2026 — withdrawal logistics, quarantine controversy, equipment-contract concerns.
• SAnews.gov.za, “New chapter as SANDF withdraws from DRC” — South African government statements on the SAMIDRC withdrawal and official reasoning.
• DailyNews/IOL/Business Report (South Africa), reporting of 2 and 8 February 2025 — names and circumstances of the 14 SANDF soldiers killed in the January 2025 M23 offensive.
• Associated regional reporting on the Washington Accords (December 2025) and the Doha Framework/August 2026 Switzerland talks on DRC-AFC/M23 peace implementation.