The East African Community Regional Force(EACRF) has started its withdrawal from the Democratic Republic of Congo after Kinshasa refused to renew its mandate.
The Kenyan troops on Sunday started leaving the areas they were occupying as they boarded planes back to Nairobi.
It was reported by AFP that a first group of around 100 Kenyan soldiers from the regional force — which also includes Ugandan, Burundian and South Sudanese soldiers — left from Goma airport bound for Nairobi on Sunday.
East African heads of state earlier last year agreed to have a regional troop deployment in DRC amidst the tension caused by the fighting between M23 rebels and government troops.
The regional troops would later help secure several areas which were previously in the hands of the M23 rebels but also occupied those vacated by the rebels.
However last month, following a summit on 25 November, the East African Community announced that the DRC “would not renew the mandate of the regional force beyond 8 December 2023”.
This coincided with an agreement signed by DRC allowing the Southern African Development Community (SADC) force to replace the departing EAC Regional Force.
It remains to be seen if the M23 rebels will not recapture the areas which they previously held but had been occupied by the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) and are now vacant.
Four countries including Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Burundi had deployed troops under the EACRF.
