Pro-Kinshasa militia enter strategic DRC city after M23 pullout

DRC

Bukavu –  Pro-Kinshasa militiamen entered the strategic town of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after Rwanda-backed M23 fighters said they were withdrawing, AFP learned Sunday from local and government sources.

Early last month the M23 launched an offensive in South Kivu province, taking control of Uvira, a town of several hundred thousand people on the border with Burundi, just days after the DRC and Rwanda had signed a peace accorded brokered by Washington.On December 17, the M23 announced the withdrawal of its troops from Uvira, saying it was responding to a US request to do so.But police and military personnel from the armed group remained in the lakeside city. Then on Thursday, the M23 said it intended to withdraw its last remaining fighters from Uvira, declaring it wanted the city placed “under full responsibility of the international community”.

Local sources on Saturday reported seeing M23 troops leaving the city, then on Sunday, “Wazalendo” militiamen — a nickname given to local pro-Kinshasa militia groups — entered neighbourhoods in southern Uvira, according to local sources.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard Sunday morning, with shops and homes looted, the sources said.

“The Wazalendo are definitely in the city of Uvira,” said Kelvin Bwija, head of a local civil society group.

“There are scenes of jubilation in the street as people celebrate the arrival of Wazalendo in the town,” said one resident who preferred to remain anonymous.

“I can confirm that the Wazalendo are gradually entering Uvira,” Jean Jacques Purusi, governor of South Kivu province, told AFP, saying that Congolese army soldiers would follow.

He also said in a statement to media that M23 troops “have positioned themselves on the heights” of Uvira “to point their weapons at the city”, as well as in surrounding areas.

“Some of their members have stayed in the city,” Purisi added.

In a letter dated January 11, the M23 asked the United Nations Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), whose peacekeepers are deployed in the neighbouring province of North Kivu, to “ensure the security of the city”.

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Source: AFP

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