GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The last group of Rwandan soldiers left the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Saturday, October 5, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent in the border town of Goma reported.

The 1,150 men of the third battalion of the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) crossed the border by foot in a single file at a small border post separating Goma from the town of Gisenyi on the Rwandan side of the border.

The Rwandan troops posted across the border in DRC had earlier on Saurday assembled in Goma, preparing to cross the frontier home. Several thousand Goma residents applauded as the Rwandans departed.

Rwanda sent troops into the DRC in August 1998 to back rebels seeking to oust the Kinshasa government and to fight Rwandan Hutu extremists who had fled into the neighboring country after the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

With Russian-made military helicopters flying overhead, the soldiers sang as they marched along Goma's main streets before they went to the border post known as The Corniche.

The last solder crossed through the metal barrier separating the two countries at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT), in the presence of representatives of the UN observer mission in DRC (MONUC) and other international observers, AFP said.

A total of 22,000 RPA troops have left the DRC as a whole, by plane or by road, according to the general staff.

This figure does not include sick and injured soldiers, men on leave or those or were in Rwanda before the operation began.

All the foreign armies that deployed in the DRC on either side in the war have been pulling out. Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi went in alongside rebel movements, while Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia sided with Kinshasa, as did Chad at one point in the conflict.

Namibia's troops all left last year.

Rwanda's pull out is in line with a July South African-mediated peace deal with the Kinshasa government.

The withdrawal was carried out by plane for the far-flung regions of Maniema in the central-east of DRC and northern Katanga in the southeast, while lorries were used to transport troops from the Kivu border provinces.