UN urges Rwanda forces to leave eastern Congo

The UN Security Council has urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces from eastern Congo and extended the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, for a year, as fighting in the region escalated despite a US-mediated peace deal.

The UN’s most powerful body on Friday condemned an offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23, demanded that Rwanda stop supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops. The Security Council also renewed the peacekeepers’ mandate, keeping about 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution. The resolution comes as M23 claimed Wednesday to have withdrawn from Uvira, a strategic city in eastern Congo, which it seized last week, after pressure from the US. Congo’s Government said the withdrawal was “staged” and that the rebels were still in the city.

US Deputy Ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the Security Council on Friday that M23 must immediately withdraw at least 75 kilometres (47 miles) away from Uvira.  M23 took control of the city last week in a deadly offensive that came despite a US-mediated peace agreement signed earlier this month by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington.

The accord didn’t include the rebel group, which is negotiating separately with Congo and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating. However, the accord obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups like M23 and work to end hostilities. Congo, the US and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which has grown from hundreds of members in 2021 to around 6,500 fighters, according to the UN. More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda, most prominently M23.

The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the UN.