Fierce fighting took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advances towards the strategic city of Uvira on the border with Burundi.
The armed group and its Rwandan allies were around 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Uvira, compared to around 30 km on Monday, security and military sources told AFP.
The renewed violence comes just days after Kinshasa and Kigali signed a peace agreement at a ceremony presided over by US President Donald Trump.
Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.
Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.
On Thursday, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame signed in Washington what Trump called a “miracle” deal to end the conflict.
The deal includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as Washington seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.
But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.
On Tuesday, clashes occurred in Sange and Runingo, two small localities within 20 km of Uvira, with security and military sources reporting the rapid advance of the M23 and the Rwandan army.
In Uvira, witnesses and military sources said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight, and shops were looted at dawn.
Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources.
Bombing above the city of several hundred thousand residents sowed panic on Tuesday. “We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” a resident said.
With Uvira sitting across Lake Tanganyika from its economic capital, Bujumbura, Burundi views the prospect of the city falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat.
It deployed about 10,000 soldiers to the eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and military sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to as high as 20,000 men.
The M23 and Rwandan forces launched the offensive on Uvira on December 1.
AFP
