Overview
- M23 leader Corneille Nangaa announced a unilateral pullout from the eastern DR Congo city as a trust-building step to give the Doha talks a chance.
- A civil society source and on-the-ground reporting said fighters remained in Uvira on Tuesday, as the group proposed a 5 km buffer zone, demilitarisation and monitoring by a neutral force.
- The militia seized Uvira on December 10, taking control of the land border with Burundi and triggering an estimated 200,000 displacements and dozens of civilian deaths, according to the UN and NGOs.
- Washington accused Rwanda of violating the Washington Accords, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledging action, while Kigali denies backing M23 despite UN experts’ findings of Rwandan command-and-control.
- An M23 official said the group captured several hundred Burundian soldiers during the offensive, a claim not independently confirmed, as fighting and humanitarian constraints persisted south of the city.