M23 rebels enter key city in eastern DRC, forcing thousands to flee
Burundian sources tell AFP that they had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week.
M23 rebels entered the key eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Uvira, AFP news agency reported, with thousands fleeing across the border into Burundi to escape the Rwanda-backed militia's latest advance.
According to military and security sources, the militia's fighters entered the strategic border town at the gates of Burundi from the north on Tuesday, after the United States and European powers urged the M23 to "immediately halt" its offensive and for Rwanda to pull its troops out of the eastern DRC.
As the M23 appeared set to seize the last major settlement in South Kivu province, it had yet to capture, scores of Congolese soldiers mingled among the civilians fleeing to Burundi, which has sent troops to help the DRC fight Rwanda, according to military sources.
The renewed violence undermined an agreement aiming to end the conflict brokered by US President Donald Trump, which Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.
Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict, which has raged on-and-off for years, was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in January.
With civilians seeking refuge from the M23's latest advance, a Burundian administrative source told AFP on condition of anonymity that he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week.
"These Congolese refugees have nothing, we've nothing to feed them or heal them with," the Burundian official said.
A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the 30,000 figure.
The M23's latest offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, two key provincial capitals in the mineral-rich eastern DRC, which has been plagued by fighting for three decades.
'Profound concern'
The United States and other members of the International Contact Group for the Great Lakes on Tuesday expressed "profound concern" over the renewed outbreak of violence in eastern DRC.
The members, which also include the European Union, United Kingdom and Switzerland, in a joint statement, warned that the new M23 rebel offensive, which they said was supported by Rwanda, in eastern DRC around Uvira and close to Burundi, "has a destabilising potential for the whole region."
Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from the Burundian economic capital Bujumbura.
The country deployed about 10,000 soldiers to the eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.
After months of relative stability at the front since March, the M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.
While denying offering the M23 military support, Rwanda argues that it faces an existential threat as a result of ethnic Hutu militants with links to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis present in the eastern DRC.