Rwanda-backed M23 rebels announced that they will withdraw from the eastern Congolese town of Uvira following a request from the US administration, days after Washington criticised the group’s seizure of the town as a setback to ongoing mediation efforts.
M23 fighters entered Uvira — which lies on the border with Burundi — less than a week after Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame met US President Donald Trump in Washington, where all sides reaffirmed their commitment to the recently signed Washington Accords.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Rwanda’s actions in eastern Congo violated the deal and vowed to “take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept.” Rwanda continues to deny supporting M23, though a UN expert report in July said Kigali exercised command-and-control over the movement.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance — an insurgent coalition that includes M23 — said in an overnight post on X that the group would pull back as a “unilateral trust-building measure” intended to give the Qatar-hosted Doha peace process “maximum chance to succeed.”
M23 is not part of the Washington-mediated negotiations but has been holding separate talks with the Congolese government under Qatari mediation.
Despite the announcement, a civil society representative in Uvira told Reuters on Tuesday that rebel fighters remained inside the town. A rebel source said both M23 and Congolese forces would each withdraw 5 km (3 miles) from Uvira to create a buffer zone — a proposal the rebels had floated at a press conference last week.
Officials in Congo and Burundi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
M23 launched a lightning offensive in January, capturing eastern Congo’s two largest cities in a campaign that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The group has since moved to impose a parallel administration in parts of the east, raising fears of a long-term territorial fracture in one of Africa’s largest states.