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South Africa's armed forces, known as the South African National Defense Force (SANDF), was created in 1994. Previously known simply as the South African Defense Force (SADF), the new force consists of the forces of the old SADF, as well as the military forces of the organizations fighting for liberation, namely Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), and the former homeland Defense forces. The SANDF is subdivided into four branches, the South African Army, the South African Air Force, the South African Navy, and the South African Military Health Services. In recent years, the SANDF has become a major peacekeeping force in Africa, and has been involved in operations in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi, amongst others. It has also participated as a part of multi-national UN peacekeeping forces. South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons program in the 70s, allegedly with the assistance of Israel, and may have conducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic in 1979, but has since renounced its nuclear program and signed the treaty in 1991 after destroying its small nuclear arsenal. It is the only African country to have developed nuclear weapons, and to date is the only country in the world to have voluntarily dismantled its nuclear weapons program. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) encouraged the country, which had succeeded going nuclear, to turn back. |
South Africa Information: Inside
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