Rwandan-backed armed group M23 has abandoned several towns near the front line in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo without a fight in recent days, local and humanitarian sources told AFP.
Since late 2021, the M23 has with support of Rwanda and its army seized vast swaths of territory in the DRC’s resource-rich east, a region ravaged by conflict for more than 30 years.
The DRC and Rwanda signed a US-brokered peace agreement last December but the fighting continues despite delegates from both sides agreeing in Washington on March 17 and 18 to “concrete measures” to advance the accord’s implementation, according to the US State Department.
The rebels withdrew during the night of March 23 to 24 from Kipese, a village in Lubero territory, and from several villages near the banks of Lake Edward in the same territory, Kipese civil society leader Jackson Kasonia told AFP.
Local militia allied to Kinshasa have since moved into to some of these localities, Kasonia added.
In Katondi, south of the Lubero urban area and the capital of the Lubero territory “we woke up today without the M23 presence in the town,” local civil society leader Augustin Kataliko said in a phone interview.
“They may be in their camps in the hills. We are afraid to go and check,” he added.
The Kivu Security Barometer (KST), a network of analysts based in eastern DRC, posted to X that M23 fighters have left “at least 12 villages in Lubero territory” since Monday.
M23 members contacted by AFP pointed to a simple “rotation” of troops, but provided no further details.
Front lines have seen little movement in recent weeks but clashes are still continuing regularly between the M23 or militias allied with it and Congolese troops — also enjoying militia support — in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.
Fighting is concentrated in the highlands of South Kivu near the town of Minembwe, a locality the warring parties have been fighting over for months.
