HARARE – SADC leaders are holding an extraordinary summit in Harare on Thursday over the rebel advance in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has led to the deaths of 13 soldiers from South Africa and three from Malawi.

Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa, the current chair of SADC, will chair the summit despite being on his annual leave, foreign minister Prof Amon Murwira said.

“There are negative developments in the east of the DRC, a lot of violence and conflict,” Murwira said.

“The extraordinary summit is for heads of state and government to debate and make decisions on the peace efforts for the eastern DRC. The mission is to restore peace to the east of the DRC.”

The meeting will review the operational capacity of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), which was deployed on December 15, 2023, and mandated to support the DRC government to restore peace and security in eastern DRC.

Only Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania contributed troops and equipment. Other SADC countries could come under pressure to bolster the mission by sending soldiers.

The summit comes as South Africa and Rwanda traded barbs over the conflict, which South Africa says is being fuelled by Rwanda through its backing of the M23 rebels.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame denies helping the M23 rebels which this week captured the eastern city of Goma, close to the border with Rwanda.

“If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,” Kagame said in a statement posted on X.

DRC President Félix Tshisekedi was conspicuously absent from a virtual summit of a regional East African bloc that began late Wednesday, hosted by Kenya.

Tshisekedi was on an official visit to Angola, which had mediated a ceasefire between the DRC and Rwanda last year, the Angolan presidency said in a statement. He was to discuss the situation in eastern Congo with Angola’s President João Lourenço.

Faced with the rebel offensive, soldiers fighting for the DRC — many of them mercenaries from other nations — were laying down their weapons at the border with Rwanda. The DRC army seemed to be in disarray, and those at the border appeared disorganised and ill-equipped for any major fighting.

A rebel spokesman said nearly 300 mercenaries have surrendered their arms and returned to their countries.

“Let the people of Goma be calm, peace is here,” said Willy Ngoma, a spokesman of the M23 group. Ngoma, who is on the U.N. Security Council’s sanctions list for crimes committed by the rebels.

“It’s like you are fighting without command,” said Jean Marie Ndahambaza, one of the surrendering soldiers.

Armed groups have long vied for control of eastern DRC, which is rich in minerals critical to much of the world’s technology, and has been the scene of proxy battles between the DRC and neighboring Rwanda, as well as other powers.

The chaotic situation has its roots in ethnic conflict: M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled into the DRC after the genocide.