Ladysmith’s own 5 South African Infantry Battalion (5SAI) troops are on high alert in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as they ready themselves for a major battle against the area’s largest remaining rebel group.

Government sources confirmed on Monday that the failure of FDLR rebels to meet a January 2 deadline to surrender had “rendered the military option inevitable”.

The FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) was established by ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after taking part in the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994.

It is considered by the United Nations as the last major source of instability in the DRC.

In 2013, the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) – comprising South African, Tanzanian and Malawian battalions – was established under the UN peacekeeping force Monusco, but with a stronger mandate to take the fight to all the rebel groups in the DRC.

The South African military contribution to the FIB has been both ground- and air-based.

5SAI is currently the land-based unit, while 16 Squadron and its homegrown Rooivalk combat support helicopter has been part of the brigade’s aerial spearhead.