When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called Rwanda’s military a “militia” and blamed it for killing South African troops in DR Congo, it marked the high point of his moral posturing over the conflict in the Great Lakes.
Now, two months later, his own soldiers are trudging out of Goma under the watchful escort of the same Rwandan Defence Force he so flamboyantly condemned. And tagged a "militia".
On Tuesday, a convoy of vehicles carrying 57 troops—32 South Africans, 16 Malawians and 9 Tanzanians—departed La Corniche Border Post in Rwanda’s Rubavu District at around 11am.
The group, escorted by RDF soldiers, continued toward the Rusumo border with Tanzania and will proceed to Chato, a lakeside port where their repatriation process will begin.
The weapons have been sealed during transit, leaving Ramaphosa's troops to travel like body bags.
The operation is part of a phased withdrawal of SADC troops from eastern DR Congo through Rwanda and Tanzania, after the bloc’s military intervention collapsed into logistical and political embarrassment.
This humiliating U-turn is the latest chapter in a saga that began with sabre-rattling from Pretoria.
After M23 rebels stormed Goma in January 2025, Ramaphosa issued a furious statement blaming “the Rwanda Defence Force militia” for backing the insurgents and killing four South African soldiers.
His government accused Kigali of undermining peace efforts and escalating violence against the Congolese army and SADC peacekeepers.
Rwanda responded with both fury and precision. President Paul Kagame accused Ramaphosa of lying about private diplomatic exchanges and flatly denied that his army had targeted South African troops.
Instead, Kagame claimed it was the Congolese military that killed them. He mocked the idea of a "warning" from Ramaphosa, suggesting that if one was issued, it must have been "in a local language" he doesn’t understand.
Even as Ramaphosa took a moral high ground in public, Kagame revealed he had privately requested Rwanda's help to ensure that his forces in DR Congo had food, water and electricity.
The RDF, far from being driven out, is now facilitating a safe and dignified retreat for a SADC force that has failed to dislodge the M23 from any meaningful territory.
M23 not only controls North Kivu but has also swallowed swathes of South Kivu and instituted a parallel administration, further shrinking Kinshasa’s grip.
The SAMIDRC mission, launched with fanfare in December 2023, was meant to reinforce Kinshasa’s flailing army. But in a matter of months, it crumbled under the weight of its own contradictions: unclear objectives, poor coordination, and an underestimation of the rebel advance.
The result is a regional embarrassment now wrapped in sealed weapons and escorted home by the very “militia” it came to fight.
Ramaphosa’s posture as a peace-bringer and regional strongman has been left in tatters with that ignominious withdrawal.
South Africa, far from brokering stability, is retreating—literally and diplomatically—through Rwanda, a country it sought to isolate.
The only message the region hears now is this: words are cheap, but exit routes must be negotiated.