Southern African leaders have announced they will pull their troops out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where they have been helping the government fight rebel forces.
The troops were sent two years ago to support the Congolese army fight the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, which has seized control of large parts of mineral-rich eastern DR Congo this year.
At least 19 soldiers from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania were killed when the M23 captured the region’s biggest city, Goma, in January.
Thousands of people have been killed during the fighting and hundreds of thousands left without shelter after fleeing their homes.
There have been concerns the fighting could escalate to a wider regional conflict.
The M23 has continued to gain ground in eastern DR Congo and last month seized the region’s second-biggest city, Bukavu.
South Africa’s deployment was heavily criticised by the public and opposition following the killing of its soldiers.
Announcing the withdrawal, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the “situation is precarious, but the peace as it is now is holding”.
However, the M23 has continued to seize more territory this week.
Sandile Swanda, a South African political analyst, told the BBC it was an “embarrassing” situation for her country.
“The rebels are very strong. This is a full-on war and South Africa is hardly ready for any such war,” he said.
He added: “No country in the Sadc region is ready for this war – psychologically, militarily and politically.”
But the withdrawal is not just a setback for South Africa, it’s a blow to both Sadc and the DR Congo, analysts say.
Stephanie Wolters, a senior research fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs, told the BBC that Sadc’s withdrawal weakens Kinshasa’s position.
“They [Sadc] have gone from being on Kinshasa’s side to being at best in a neutral position,” she said.
In February, Malawi’s president said its troops would be withdrawn from DR Congo, although he didn’t give a reason.
The decision to start a “phased withdrawal” from DR Congo was made during a virtual summit of the 16-member Southern African Development Community (Sadc) in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, on Thursday.
No reason was given.
The Sadc leaders said that even though the troops would be withdrawn from DR Congo, the bloc would continue to “support interventions aimed at bringing lasting peace”.
Sadc also called for a diplomatic and political solution to the conflict.
Previous efforts to bring peace to DR Congo have not been successful.
But Angola has announced this week that it will host peace talks between DR Congo and the M23 next week in the capital, Luanda. The M23 said they “welcomed” this move.
DR Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi has previously refused to engage in direct negotiations with the group, insisting on only talking to Rwanda.
This was Sadc’s third emergency summit on DR Congo in recent months.
It is unclear how many Sadc troops are in DR Congo, but 5,000 troops were due to be sent.
South Africa, which leads the mission, was to deploy 2,900 troops and the rest shared between Malawi and Tanzania.
By BBC News
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