Jan. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group withdrew this Tuesday from the town of Nyamilima, located in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), about ten days after breaking into it, according to local media.
Sources quoted by the Congolese news portal Actualité have indicated that the withdrawal began on Sunday, after which members of pro-government armed groups and ‘blue helmets’ of the United Nations Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) were able to enter the city on Monday.
The leader of the political arm of the M23, Bertrand Bisimwa, has highlighted in his account on the social network Twitter that “of all the parties implicated by the Luanda statement, the M23 is the only one that applies the recommendations formulated, while other parties act firmly and officially contrary to its obligations”.
The presidents of the DRC and Rwanda, Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, respectively, participated in the aforementioned summit in Luanda, and a ceasefire and a process for the withdrawal of the rebels were agreed. Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the group, something denied by the Rwandan authorities.
The M23 has been accused since November 2021 of carrying out attacks against Army positions in North Kivu, despite the Congolese authorities and the M23 signing a peace agreement in December 2013 after fighting since 2012 with the Army, with the support of United Nations troops.
The situation has led to an uptick in tensions between the DRC and Rwanda. United Nations experts affirmed in a recent report that the Rwandan authorities maintain a “direct intervention” in the African country through their support for the group.
