M23 clashes Uvira as fighting erupts between rebels and pro-government militias despite a promised withdrawal from the Congolese city

Clashes erupted on Monday near Uvira in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 group exchanged gunfire with pro-government militia, despite a recent pledge by the rebels to withdraw from the city.

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The fighting occurred in and around Uvira, a strategic lakeside city near the border with Burundi, days after M23 leaders announced they would pull their forces out following diplomatic pressure linked to a US-brokered peace deal.

M23 fighters had seized Uvira earlier this month, shortly after the governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement in Washington, an accord described by United States President Donald Trump as a “great miracle”.

However, tensions resurfaced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Rwanda of violating the December 4 agreement and warned that unspecified action would follow.

The leader of the M23 political wing, Corneille Nangaa, had publicly stated that the group would “unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira, as requested by the US mediators”.

Local and security sources said that while some fighters appeared to leave, plainclothes M23 members remained in the city, fuelling mistrust and fear among residents.

M23 fighters and a pro-Kinshasa militia known as the Wazalendo traded sustained gunfire on Monday, according to Mafikiri Mashimango, a civil society leader in Uvira, who said the clashes could be heard across the city.

Residents reported that daily life was abruptly halted as people stayed indoors for safety, with commercial and social activity effectively paralysed.

Witnesses said the fighting was concentrated in surrounding hills and neighbourhoods in the south and south-west of Uvira, including areas near the port of Kalundu on Lake Tanganyika.

One resident said a bomb landed in Mulongwe, south-east of the city, adding that bullets were flying over residential homes, heightening panic among civilians.

The Congolese armed forces dismissed the withdrawal announcement as a “media coup designed to fool public opinion”, accusing the M23 of redeploying fighters to the hills overlooking Uvira.

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The renewed violence has cast fresh doubt on the fragile peace process and underscored the volatile security situation in eastern Congo, where armed groups continue to exert a destabilising presence.