The Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Thursday that a summit of regional heads of state had terminated the mandate of its troop deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo and decided on a "phased withdrawal".

Southern African leaders have announced they will pull their troops out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where they have been helping the government fight rebel forces. The decision to start a "phased withdrawal" was made during a virtual summit of the 16-member Southern African Development Community (Sadc) on Thursday.

South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe was re-elected unopposed as Confederation of African Football president at the organisation’s congress in Cairo on Wednesday while four-time African Footballer of the Year Samuel Eto’o won a place on the executive committee.

South African Patrice Motsepe is re-elected unopposed as president of the Confederation of African Football with Cameroon legend Samuel Eto'o voted onto Caf's executive committee

African soccer leader Patrice Motsepe was re-elected Wednesday and urged working with private financiers to help federations build national stadiums in countries where government budgets are tight. The 54 member federations of the Confederation of African Football — 12 of whom currently cannot host national-team games in international competitions — elected Motsepe by acclaim unopposed to have a second four-year term.