Air Zimbabwe chartered flight evacuates wounded soldiers from DRC

About 200 wounded and sick South African who had been in combat in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), together with Tanzanian and Malawian allies, were yesterday evaluated out of the rebel M23-controlled Goma in eastern Congo after weeks of difficult negotiations with their captors in an Air Zimbabwe leased chartered flight.

The Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 aircraft, which acted as an air ambulance for the soldiers – was leased to Mont Gabaon Airlines of the DRC last year.

The aircraft, which had been parked in Harare for two years before that, flew to Goma where it operates from on 4 May 2024.

The aircraft is on a long lease to Mont Gabaon Airlines.

The wounded South African soldiers – including five seriously injured and two pregnant women – were evacuated through Rwanda and touched down at Air Force Base Waterkloof in Pretoria via Tanzania and Malawi where they dropped their allies from those countries.

M23 controls Goma, the capital of the mineral-rich North Kivu, and the second-largest city there Bukavu by Lake Kivu, a strategic transport and trade route.

Newshawks