South Africa's military said two of its soldiers were killed and three wounded by a mortar bomb in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as President Cyril Ramaphosa struck back against opposition claims that they were ill-equipped.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) on Thursday said in a statement posted on X that a mortar bomb landed inside one of the South African contingent's military bases on Wednesday.

"As a result of this indirect fire, the SANDF suffered two fatalities and three members sustained injuries. The injured were taken to the nearest hospital in Goma for medical attention," the statement said.

An investigation into the incident will be conducted, the SANDF added.

Troops unprepared

South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance party accused Ramaphosa of sending troops into a war zone unprepared.

"Two days ago, we warned him against deploying more troops to the Eastern DRC for the simple reason that the SANDF does not have the capacity to effectively pursue an anti-insurgency campaign against the M23 rebels and neither does it have the prime mission equipment to support the ground forces," it said in a statement.

The M23 is a Tutsi-led group that recently stepped up its offensive in eastern DRC.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the deaths and defended South Africa's mission in response to questions from journalists later on Thursday.

"Yes, we do have the military hardware to engage in military operations such as those we are finding in eastern DRC. South Africa has over many years participated in peacekeeping missions in various parts of our continent," he said.