Pretoria – The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said its soldier serving in the eastern city of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was killed on Sunday.
SANDF spokesperson, Siphiwe Dlamini said the soldier was killed during an incident where an Oryx helicopter came under fire in Goma.
“A crew member was fatally shot, another suffered injuries but managed to continue flying the chopper and landed safely at Goma Airport,” Dlamini said.
He said the SANDF is in the process of informing family members of the soldiers who were involved in the “unfortunate incident”.
“All other details will be communicated in due course,” Dlamini said.
“The Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms Thandi Modise, the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Mr Thabang Makwetla, the acting secretary for Defence, Dr Thobekile Gamede and the Chief of the SANDF, General Rudzani Maphwanya express their heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased and wish the wounded soldier a speedy recovery.”
The UN mission called Monusco (UN Stabilisation Mission in Congo) was quoted in the media as saying the Oryx helicopter which came under attack was operated by the peacekeeping force, and it was attacked after taking off from the city of Beni.
In 2015, IOL reported that more than 400 South African soldiers were heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo to beef up Monusco.
“We will be deploying three groups. We will be deploying a specialist unit to Kinshasa. An aviation unit will be deployed to Goma and the third group will be an engineers squadron,” Brigadier-General Linda Selepe, responsible for SANDF external operations told reporters at the time.
IOL attended a farewell parade held at the South African National Defence Force mobilisation unit in De Brug, near Bloemfontein.
The deployment was a rotation for the South African soldiers, as hundreds on that mission were returning home.
IOL
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