M23 rebels announce withdrawal from eastern DR Congo villages

Armed group pronounces retreat from territory captured in jap DR Congo following clashes with authorities forces.

M23 has accused the federal government of reneging on a peace deal and resumed combating final yr [File: Melanie Gouby/AP Photo]

Rebels from the M23 group have introduced their retreat from villages captured in jap Democratic Republic of the Congo final week following clashes with authorities troops within the Rutshuru area.

Preventing between the rebels and troopers flared up Wednesday after a number of days of calm, and rebels from the March 23 Motion (M23) took management of round a dozen villages in Rutshuru territory in North Kivu province, native sources stated.

The M23 took the “choice to withdraw, as soon as extra, from its newly-won positions … to permit for its considerations to be addressed by open and fruitful dialogue with the federal government” of DR Congo, the group stated on Sunday.

The M23 “by no means had the intention to seize areas to run them, our solely motivation is the peaceable decision of the disaster,” it added in a press release.

However it was not confirmed whether or not the withdrawal from round a dozen villages had taken place.

The M23 additionally stated it supposed “handy over all [soldiers] from the nationwide military captured on the frontline to the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross for correct care”.

The M23 was fashioned by former members of a Congolese Tutsi armed group that was as soon as supported by Rwanda and Uganda.

The rebels had been integrated into the Congolese military underneath a peace deal signed on March 23, 2009.

In 2012, they mutinied, saying the deal had not been upheld and naming their group the March 23 (M23) Motion.

Changing into one of many scores of armed teams that roam jap DR Congo, the M23 briefly seized the town of Goma earlier than being defeated and compelled in a foreign country.

After its defeat, the M23 ultimately signed an accord with the federal government that included provisions for its fighters to reintegrate into civilian society. However the group has once more accused the federal government of reneging on the deal and resumed combating final yr.

Their newest offensive started in late March.

United Nations investigators have beforehand accused Rwanda and Uganda of supporting M23. Each international locations, which intervened militarily in Congo throughout two regional wars 20 years in the past, deny this.