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

According to military and security sources, the militia's fighters entered the strategic border town at the gates of Burundi from the north, after the United States and European powers urged the M23 to "immediately halt" its offensive and for Rwanda to pull its troops out of the eastern DRC.

As the M23 appeared set to seize the last major settlement in South Kivu province it had yet to capture, scores of Congolese soldiers mingled among the civilians fleeing to Burundi, which has sent troops to help the DRC fight Rwanda, according to military sources.

The renewed violence undermined an agreement aiming to end the conflict brokered by US President Donald Trump and which 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 January.

With civilians seeking refuge from the M23's latest advance, a Burundian administrative source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week.

"These Congolese refugees have nothing, we've nothing to feed them or heal them with," the Burundian official said.

A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the 30,000 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 mineral-rich eastern DRC, which has been plagued by fighting for three decades.

- 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 country 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' -

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

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday ahead of the M23's advance, 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 tumult 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.

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.

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I.Yassin--SF-PST