M23’s Tech Might Outgun SADC Force, Peacekeepers in DRC

ADF STAFF

M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have acquired high-tech weaponry not typical of such militias, raising questions about whether Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops might find themselves outgunned as they attempt to help bring the rebels to heel.

The attempted downing of a United Nations observation drone about 70 kilometers north of Goma in February was the most recent sign that M23 fighters possess military-grade weapons beyond the small arms most common to such groups.

In that incident, the U.N. observed a surface-to-air missile (SAM) battery later identified as a Chinese-made WZ551 6×6 IFV mobile SAM system. The system has eight canister-launched TY-90 infrared homing missiles and two sensor systems mounted on a turret.

The SAM battery fired on the U.N. drone but missed it.

Along with mobile SAM units, according to the U.N. Group of Experts on Congo, M23 also appears to possess “numerous weapons against aircraft and also have in their armory anti-aircraft guns and MANPAD [portable surface-to-air missile] mobile air defense systems,” as well as GPS-guided 120 mm mortar rounds.

The U.N. Group of Experts’ report included two photographs showing the tail from a similar mortar round recovered after an attack on an Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) camp in Kanyamahoro in October 2023.

The DRC has received sophisticated weapons of its own recently, including drones from Bulgaria, China and Turkey, to fight M23 and other rebel groups proliferating in the eastern regions of the country.

M23’s use of sophisticated weaponry has given it an edge over the FARDC and allowed it to sweep across the North Kivu region. M23 has been on the move since 2022, when it returned to life after being defeated by the FARDC in 2013.

Bintou Keita, civilian head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, has described M23 as acting increasingly more like a conventional army than an armed militia. She told the U.N. Security Council in 2022 that M23’s weaponry could pose a threat that MONUSCO and other peacekeeping groups are unprepared to counter.

MONSUCO is scheduled to have withdrawn its 15,000 troops by the end of December 2024. Meanwhile, Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania are collectively deploying about 5,000 troops. SADC Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) forces deployed on December 15, 2023, to replace the East African Community Regional Force that DRC leaders expelled that same month.

In February, South Africa reported that two of its Soldiers died and three were wounded when a mortar round hit their base.

M23’s advances have given it control over several roads and the communities of Bunagana, Kitchanga, Kiwanja, Mweso, Rubaya and Rutshuru. It is closing in on Goma, the capital of North Kivu that borders Rwanda. M23 fighters have sent thousands of civilians fleeing ahead of them as they sweep through one community after another.

Henriette Muyume is among the civilians forced to flee.

“We are running from the fighting between rebels and soldiers,” Muyume told Al Jazeera. “We don’t know where we can go, but we can’t survive in this situation. It’s too much for us.”