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Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 said that it’s taken control of the strategic city of Uvira in eastern Congo on Wednesday afternoon, following a rapid offensive since the start of the month.
The announcement, made on X by M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, encouraged citizens to return to their homes. Uvira is an important port city on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika and is directly across from Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura.
Congolese authorities didn’t immediately comment on whether M23 had taken the city.
M23’s latest offensive comes despite a U.S.-mediated peace agreement signed last week by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington. The accord didn’t include the rebels, who are negotiating separately with Congo and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating. But it obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups and work to end hostilities.
Residents of Uvira reported a chaotic night where Congolese army troops fled, and gunfire was reported throughout the city.
More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, most prominently the M23 group. The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than seven million people displaced, officials say.
Last week, residents said the fighting had intensified in South Kivu, despite the deal signed in Washington, D.C., with U.S. President Donald Trump in attendance.
Local UN partners report that more than 200,000 people have been displaced across the province since Dec. 2, with more than 70 killed. Civilians also have crossed into Burundi, and there have been reports of shells falling in the town of Rugombo, on the Burundian side of the border, raising concerns about the conflict spilling over into Burundi.
A Congolese government source told Reuters the military would not react to the advance, in order to protect civilians.
The rebels in Congo are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to UN experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometres to the east.
Earlier this year, M23 seized Goma and Bukavu, two key cities in eastern Congo, in a major escalation of the yearslong conflict.
On Monday, Reuters reported that M23 had captured Luvungi, a town that had stood as the front line since February, and that fierce fighting was ongoing near Sange and Kiliba, villages further along the road toward Uvira from the north.
The U.S. and nine other members of the International Contact Group (ICG) for the Great Lakes voiced “profound concern” on Tuesday over the renewed clashes in South Kivu province, where Uvira is located, warning that the violence could destabilize the wider region.
Burundi’s foreign minister, Edouard Bizimana, told Radio France Internationale on Wednesday that his country had registered more than 30,000 refugees from Congo in the past three days.
