A patrol car of the M23 movement patrols in Uvira on December 13, 2025. JOSPIN MWISHA / AFP
The M23 armed group said Tuesday, December 16, it would withdraw from the key city of Uvira in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo at the request of Washington, which vowed "action" over the "clear violation" of a US-brokered peace accord. The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic city near the border with Burundi last Wednesday, days after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed the peace deal in Washington – an agreement US President Donald Trump had hailed as a "great miracle".
The M23's advance has thrown the future of the peace process into doubt and raised fears of a wider regional war. Its capture of Uvira – a city of several hundred thousand people – allowed it to control the land border with Burundi and cut the DRC off from military support from its neighbor. At least 85,000 refugees have fled into Burundi since the advance, with the numbers rising daily, Burundian officials said Tuesday.
"The vast majority of these refugees are women and children living in extreme precariousness," said Ezechiel Nibigira, the Burundian president of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) commission. They face "acute shortages of food, shelter, sanitation facilities, safe drinking water, basic health services," Nibigira said.
