Dec 16 (Reuters) – Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have said they would withdraw from the eastern Congo town of Uvira at the request of the U.S. administration, which had criticised seizure of the town last week as a threat to mediation efforts.
The rebels entered Uvira, on the border with Burundi, less than a week after the presidents of Congo and Rwanda met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington and affirmed their commitment to a peace deal known as the Washington Accords.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Rwanda’s actions in eastern Congo violated the Washington Accords and vowed to “take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept.”
Rwanda denies supporting M23 and has blamed Congolese and Burundian forces for the renewed fighting. A report by a United Nations group of experts in July said Rwanda exercised command and control over the rebels.
WITHDRAWAL A ‘UNILATERAL TRUST-BUILDING MEASURE’
Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance of insurgents that includes M23, said in a post overnight on X that the rebels would withdraw.
The move was a “unilateral trust-building measure in order to give the Doha peace process the maximum chance to succeed,” he said.
M23 is not party to the Washington-mediated negotiations but has been participating in separate, parallel talks with the Congolese government, hosted by Qatar.
A civil society activist in Uvira told Reuters on Tuesday that the rebels were still there.
A rebel source said both M23 and Congolese forces would withdraw 5 km (3 miles) from Uvira to establish a buffer zone, something M23 had proposed at a press conference last week.
Congo and Burundi did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
M23 staged a lightning offensive in January, seizing eastern Congo’s two biggest cities in fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more.
The insurgents have since worked to establish a parallel administration in the east, potentially setting the vast Central African country up for an enduring fracture.
(Reporting by Congo newsroom and Sonia Rolley in Paris; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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