JOHANNESBURG, March 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Southern African leaders held a virtual summit Thursday to discuss the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, including reviewing a military mission that has lost several soldiers this year.

The summit -- the latest in a series the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has held on the growing conflict -- comes a day after Angola announced that peace talks between the DRC and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group would begin next week.

The M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich and volatile eastern DRC, including the key cities of Goma and Bukavu, in a lightning advance since January.

The virtual meeting of the 16-nation SADC bloc will be updated on the security and humanitarian situation and review the mandate of the SADC mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC), SADC executive secretary Elias Magoso said in opening remarks.

South Africa lost 14 soldiers in the eastern DRC conflict in January.

Most were from the SAMIDRC mission but at least two were deployed as part of a separate United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Three Malawian troops in the SADC deployment were also killed.

The mission was sent to the eastern DRC in December 2023 to help the government of the DRC, a SADC member, restore peace and security.
- 'Greater sense of urgency' -

Officials do not comment on the size of the military deployment -- which also includes soldiers from Tanzania -- but the bulk of the troops come from South Africa, which is estimated to have sent at least 1,000 troops.

Calls have been mounting in South Africa for soldiers still in the DRC to be withdrawn, with reports that they are confined to their base by M23 fighters.

Opening Thursday's summit, SADC chairperson and Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for a "greater sense of urgency" in efforts to end the conflict, which he said could cause instability beyond the DRC's borders.

Inclusive dialogue was essential, he said, adding that the review of the SAMIDRC mandate was "timely".

Angola's presidential office announced late on Wednesday that talks between the DRC and M23 would begin next Tuesday.

"Following the steps taken by the Angolan mediation... delegations from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the M23 will begin direct peace talks on March 18 in the city of Luanda," it said.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco had earlier met DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, who had previously refused to engage in dialogue with the M23 as demanded by Rwanda.

A report by UN experts has said Rwanda maintains some 4,000 troops in the eastern DRC in support of the M23. Rwanda denies providing the group with military assistance.

The DRC says the M23's advance has killed more than 7,000 people since the beginning of 2025. AFP has not been able to verify that figure independently.