Painful lesson- it is no peace but fighting

By: Louis Khama Majamanda

The death of six Malawian soldiers in Democratic republic of Congo DRC remains a painful lesson to Malawians especially the Malawi Defense Force fraternity, and the families of fallen soldiers.

Close to three month now Malawi as a country draws a big lesson from the loss of young and dedicated soldiers and believed that the mission in DRC is no more peace keeping but rather a combat war.

In trying to make sure that the atrocities that happened in DRC should be avoided in near future Malawi Defense Force partnered the British army to fully equip the force intervention brigades who will be deployed in DRC with required skills to defend and fight during the mission. 

Speaking during the launch of the training of the trainers on Monday at Malawi armed forces college MAFCO in Salima district Major general Paul Verontino Phiri said the training will equip the instructors with necessary knowledge so that they should impact skills to the troops who will be deployed any time soon to DRC or any country for peace keeping mission.

“The death of six soldiers surely motivates this training, the instructors here will be equipped and so does our troops.” Said Phiri

The two weeks training that is attended by 30 instructors will bring something new in Malawi defense Force that will change how Malawian soldiers handle their mission in DRC.

On his part British army representative Captain Thomas Said Malawi defense Force soldiers are very professional on how they handle different situations during mission but there is great need to equip the troops with more skills to handle even better difficult situations.

“First of all, I would like to extend my condolence to Malawi Defense Force for the loss; secondly this is the training that will make sure that such kind off accident should be avoided.” Said Captain Thomas.

MDF has taken part in peacekeeping missions across the DRC and other parts of the continent since 1994.