Congolese army retakes strategic DRC city after M23 withdrawal
On Thursday, the M23 said it planned to withdraw its remaining forces from Uvira and declared its intention to place the city "under the full and entire responsibility of the international community".
A woman balances a sack of flour on her head as she crosses a road in Uvira in December. The city, home to several hundred thousand inhabitants, had served as the provisional administrative center of South Kivu after the provincial capital, Bukavu, fell to the M23 in February 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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KINSHASA — The Congolese army said Monday it had retaken control of the strategic city of Uvira after the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group withdrew.
M23, an anti‑government group, launched an offensive in early December in South Kivu province in eastern DRC and seized Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand people on the border with Burundi, just after the DRC and Rwanda signed a peace agreement overseen by US President Donald Trump.
On December 17, the armed group said it was pulling its troops out of Uvira, claiming to be responding to a US request, but M23 police and military personnel remained in the lakeside city.
On Thursday, the M23 said it planned to withdraw its remaining forces from Uvira and declared its intention to place the city "under the full and entire responsibility of the international community".
Local sources then reported troop movements on Saturday as M23 units left the city.
On Sunday morning, "wazalendo" forces -- the local pro‑Kinshasa militias -- entered southern districts of Uvira, followed later in the day by elements of the Congolese special forces, according to local and government sources.
Congolese army (FARDC) spokesman Mak Hazukay announced the city's full recapture in a statement on Monday.
Residents cheered the arriving fighters as sporadic gunfire echoed through the city. Their arrival was also marred by looting of shops and homes, according to several local sources.
"About 20 looting civilians were arrested," Hazukay said.
The FARDC "continue their deployment in the city of Uvira and its surroundings in order to consolidate their positions", the statement added.
On Sunday, the governor of the surrounding South Kivu province, Jean Jacques Purusi, said M23 troops had "positioned themselves on the heights" above Uvira "to point their weapons at the city", as well as in nearby localities, according to a message circulated to the media.