KINSHASA: The UN Security Council has urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces from eastern Congo and extended the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, for a year, as fighting in the region escalated despite a US-mediated peace deal. The UN’s most powerful body on Friday condemned an offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23, demanded Rwanda stop supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops. The Security Council also renewed the peacekeepers’ mandate, keeping about 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution.

DR Congo's government say the announced withdrawal is intended to distract the US mediation team.

KINSHASA: M23 police and plain-clothed intelligence agents were still deployed Thursday in Uvira, local and security sources said, after the armed group announced it had begun…