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The M23 armed group said Tuesday it had agreed to a request from the United States to withdraw from the key city of Uvira in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic city near the border with Burundi last week, days after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal in Washington whose future has been cast in doubt by the M23 advance, raising fears of a wider regional war.
The group “will unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira, as requested by the US mediators”, it said in a statement signed by its coordinator, Corneil Nangaa.
The M23 called for adequate measures to be put in place to manage the city, including “demilitarisation, protecting its population and infrastructure, and monitoring the ceasefire with a neutral force”.
It called for the implementation of a framework ceasefire deal reached in a parallel peace process negotiated in the Qatari capital Doha, which was agreed in November but never respected on the ground.
The M23 said it was withdrawing as a gesture “to instil trust to give the Doha peace process every chance to succeed”.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged by three decades of conflict.
