Sawt Falasteen - Thousands flee DR Congo fighting as M23 closes on key city

The armed group's fighters were just a few kilometres north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP, as the United States and European powers urged the Rwandan military and its M23 allies to "immediately halt" their offensive and for Rwandan troops to withdraw from the eastern DRC.

The renewed violence undermined an agreement aiming to end the long-running conflict in the mineral-rich region brokered by US President Donald Trump that 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 America in January.

In the wake of the recent days' fighting, 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.

A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the 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 eastern DRC, which has been plagued by fighting for three decades.

Congolese soldiers were among the civilians beating a retreat across the border to Burundi, which has sent troops to help the DRC fight Rwanda, according to military sources.

- Panic stations -

Locals described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

"Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It's every man for himself," said one resident AFP reached by telephone.

"We are all under the beds in Uvira -- that's the reality," another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name said that fighting was ongoing on the city's outskirts.

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 city is the last major settlement in the South Kivu region yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi 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.

- 'Uvira is done for' -

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump -- who called it a "miracle" deal -- also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China's dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira, according to military sources.

Many Congolese soldiers cast off their weapons and uniforms as they fled the city, heading south aboard vehicles requisitioned from civilians, while others fled on foot, according to military sources.

Some shots rang out in the chaos of the retreat, as others sought to find a boat which could take them across Lake Tanganyika.

"It's chaotic -- nobody's in charge. Uvira is done for," one Burundian officer told AFP.

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Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST