Fresh fighting broke out on Friday near Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as the M23 group clashed with pro-government militias, according to local and security sources.
Earlier this month, the Rwanda-backed M23 militia captured the strategic city near the Burundi border, following a peace agreement signed by the Congolese and Rwandan governments in Washington, a deal hailed by US President Donald Trump as a “great miracle.”
After the US accused Rwanda of breaching the December peace accord, M23 announced it would withdraw from Uvira. However, local and security officials say plainclothes M23 members remain in the city.
On Friday morning, “around 6:00 am, two M23 patrol boats were hit in the Kalundu port before catching fire,” said Martin Mafikiri Mashimango, a local civil society leader, in an interview with AFP.
A Congolese security source, speaking anonymously, told AFP: “two enemy patrol boats were hit by our drones in Kalundu,” referring to the port on Lake Tanganyika.
Earlier in the week, clashes between M23 and pro-government forces erupted near Uvira when the Rwanda-backed militants and a pro-Kinshasa militia known as Wazalendo exchanged gunfire “that could be heard across Uvira,” Mashimango told AFP.
The DRC’s armed forces dismissed M23’s promise to withdraw as “a media coup designed to fool public opinion” and accused the group of regrouping on the hillsides surrounding Uvira.
