Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has dismissed claims by the M23 rebel group that its forces have completely withdrawn from the city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), which it captured earlier this month.
Tshisekedi made the statement on Sunday during a regional summit held by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL), where leaders met to address the deteriorating security situation in the Central African country.
“The alleged withdrawal of AFC/M23 from Uvira corresponds neither to the facts nor to field observations,” he said, according to a statement shared on social media by his office.
M23 fighters seized the strategic city on Lake Tanganyika, close to the Burundi border, on December 10, just days after Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, signed a deal in Washington aimed at ending three decades of armed conflict in DR Congo’s mineral-rich east.
Last week, Corneille Nangaa, leader of the rebel coalition Congo River Alliance (AFC), which includes M23, announced that the group “will unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira as per the United States mediation’s request.”
He called the move a “trust-building measure” intended to give peace efforts, including an agreement signed in Doha earlier this year, “the maximum chance to succeed in providing lasting solutions to the conflict.”
However, Tshisekedi told regional leaders that armed elements remained “in the city and its immediate surroundings,” with “strategic positions” still occupied and civilians exposed to abuses.
“The credibility of any peace process rests on verifiable actions, not on statements of convenience,” he said.
The president also reiterated Kinshasa’s longstanding demand that Rwandan forces leave Congolese territory.
“What we expect is not a redeployment or a tactical displacement, but the effective, complete and unequivocal withdrawal of Rwandan troops from the entire territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he said, citing existing commitments and international resolutions.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing M23, despite accusations from DR Congo, the United Nations and several Western governments.