"Earlier this week, the leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo rebel coalition, which includes the M23 group, said their fighters would withdraw from the strategic town near the border with Burundi, in accordance with the request from US mediators. Corneille Nangaa, leader of the coalition, described the withdrawal as a unilateral trust-building measure in order to give the peace process the maximum chance to succeed."
"The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic town last week, imperilling a tenuous US-brokered peace agreement between Kinshasa and Kigali signed amid fanfare just days earlier and raising fears of a widening conflict. The seizure of the town led US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to accuse Rwanda, which denies backing M23 rebels, of a clear violation of the deal, promising that Washington would take action to ensure promises made to the president are kept."
M23 fighters remain visible in the town of Uvira, stating that conditions for any withdrawal have not been met. The Democratic Republic of Congo government called the group's unfulfilled pledge to withdraw a diversion and accused the rebels of offering themselves as a sacrifice to shield Rwanda from potential US measures. The Rwanda-backed militia seized Uvira last week, jeopardising a US-brokered peace agreement between Kinshasa and Kigali and raising fears of a wider conflict. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Rwanda of violating the deal and vowed action. Alliance Fleuve Congo leader Corneille Nangaa framed a withdrawal as a unilateral trust-building measure.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]