List of wars involving South Africa

This is a list of wars involving South Africa. since the foundation of the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910.

Conflict	South Africa and allies	Opponents	Results	Head of State	South African losses
Union of South Africa (1910–1961)
World War I (1914–1918)	France  British Empire  Australia  Canada  New Zealand  South Africa  India  Russian Empire  Italy  United States  Serbia  Japan  Belgium  Greece  Romania  Portugal  Brazil  Siam Hejaz	Germany  Austria-Hungary  Ottoman Empire  Bulgaria South African Republic	Victory End of the German, Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires Formation of new countries in Europe and the Middle East Transfer of German colonies and regions of the former Ottoman Empire to other powers Establishment of the League of Nations. Maritz Rebellion crushed.	Louis Botha	9,477 dead
Rand Rebellion (1921–1922)	South Africa	Communists	Government victory Rebellion suppressed.	Jan Smuts	153 dead[1] (both sides)
World War II (1939–1945)	Soviet Union  United States  British Empire  Australia  Canada  New Zealand  India  South Africa  China  France  Poland  Yugoslavia  Greece  Denmark  Norway  Netherlands  Belgium  Luxembourg  Czechoslovakia Ethiopia  Brazil  Mexico  Colombia Cuba Philippines Mongolia	Germany  Japan  Italy  Romania  Hungary  Bulgaria Slovakia  Croatia Thailand  Iraq	Victory Collapse of the German Reich Creation of the United Nations Emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers Beginning of the Cold War		6,840 dead 1,841 missing 14,589 prisoners
Korean War (1950–1953)	South Korea  United Nations  United States  United Kingdom	North Korea  China	Stalemate The Korean Armistice Agreement Little territorial change at the 38th parallel border.	D.F. Malan	34 dead[2] 9 prisoners
Republic of South Africa (1961–1994)
Rhodesian Bush War (1965–1979)	Rhodesia  South Africa	ZANU FRELIMO ZIPRA ANC	Stalemate, strategic political failure Lancaster House Agreement, internationally recognised independence for the Zimbabwe.	B. J. Vorster	Unknown
Mozambican Civil War (1979–1985)[3]	RENAMO  South Africa	Mozambique ANC	Non-aggression pact (Nkomati Accord) ANC partially expelled from Mozambique.[3]	P. W. Botha	Unknown
South African Border War (1966–1989)[4]	South Africa UNITA FNLA	MPLA  Cuba SWAPO ANC	Stalemate Withdrawal of foreign forces from Angola. Namibian independence from South African rule.		1,791 dead[5]
Post-Apartheid (from 1994)
Operation Boleas (1998)	South Africa  Lesotho	LDF rebels	Victory Suspected coup d'état in Lesotho quelled.	Nelson Mandela	10 dead[6]
Central African Republic Civil War-Battle of Bangui (2013)	South Africa  Central African Republic	Séléka	Disputed[7] François Bozizé toppled, South African withdrawal.	Jacob Zuma	15 dead[8]
M23 Rebellion (2013)	DR Congo  South Africa  Tanzania  Malawi	M23	Victory M23 rebels surrender, disarm and demobilize after being pushed back near Rwanda, truce signed.		None
ADF Insurgency (2014–)	DR Congo  South Africa  Tanzania  Malawi	ADF	Ongoing UNF Intervention Brigade actively confront the ADF from January 2014.		None

Non-combat deployments

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Mission	Location	Date	Deployed (peak)	Casualties
Berlin airlift	West Germany	1948–1949	20 aircrews[9]	None
African Union Mission in Burundi African Union Special Task Force	Burundi	2003–2004 2004–	?	?
African Union Mission in Sudan United Nations Mission in Sudan	Sudan	2004–2005 2005–2016	807 troops 10 experts[10]	?
United Nations Mission in South Sudan	South Sudan	2011–	23 police[10]	?

Notes

1. Bendix, S. (2001) Industrial Relations in South Africa. Claremont: Juta. p. 59
2. "Casualties of Korean War" (in Korean). Ministry of National Defense of Republic of Korea. Archived from the original on 2013-01-20. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
3. War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa, edited by Jacklyn Cock and Laurie Nathan, pp.104-115
4. Note: South Africa was already involved in combating SWAPO insurgents in 1966, but intervention in Angola started in 1975 with Operation Savannah.
5. https://sites.google.com/site/sabushwarsite/interesting
6. http://www.orbat.com/site/history/volume3/30/SADCLesotho1998-2000.pdf
7. References:
   • McGregor, Andrew. "South African military disaster in the Central African Republic." Terrorism Monitor, April 4, 2013. "Zuma’s decision to send a force of 400 men to ostensibly guard a group of 25 military trainers who could have easily been otherwise withdrawn can only be interpreted as an effort to bolster the CAR regime".
   • Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice, Christopher K. Chase-Dunn, and Christian Suter. Overcoming Global Inequalities Paradigm Publishers, 1. jun. 2014, Chapter 6
   • KAH, Henry Kam. "Central African Republic. Understanding the Séléka Insurrection of March 24 2013." Conflict Studies Quarterly Issue 5, University of Buea, Cameroon, October 2013: pp 47-66. "The presence of South African troops and those of member countries of the Central African union did not deter the Séléka from advancing towards Bangui. In fact, in an attempt to stop the group from advancing on to the capital, South African forces were killed in the process."
   • Heitman, Helmoed Römer. "The Hard Lessons Learnt in CAR" IOL. March 24, 2015. Accessed February 27, 2016.
8. "CAR battle claims another SANDF soldier". Enca (South Africa).
9. "5 - National Security". South Africa: a country study (PDF). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. 1997. p. 338. ISBN 0-8444-0796-8.
10. Peacekeeping Contributor Profile: South Africa | Providing for Peacekeeping. Accessed February 02, 2016.