A rebel leader in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo said his fighters would withdraw from major cities at the request of the United States.
Corneille Nanga’s statement comes days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the rebels’ seizure of Uvira was a violation of the peace agreement and that the United States would “take action to ensure that the promises made to the President (Donald Trump) are kept.”
Nangaa said rebels would withdraw from the city as a “confidence-building measure.”
The United States accuses Rwanda of supporting rebels. Rwanda denies the claims, but President Paul Kagame signed a peace deal with Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi on December 4 at a Washington event hosted by President Trump.
The US president hailed the agreement as “historic” and “a great day for Africa.”
The rebels have not signed on and have been participating in a parallel peace process led by Qatar, a US ally with strong ties to Rwanda.
Nangaa is the coordinator of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a coalition of rebel groups. This includes the M23, the most powerful military force supported by Rwanda by European countries along with the United States.
DR Congo’s army is supported by the army of neighboring Burundi.
M23’s capture of Uvira was a major blow to them. That’s because the city is just 27 kilometers from Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, at the northern end of Lake Tanganyika.
“AFC/M23 will unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira at the request of US mediation,” Nangaa said in a statement, adding that this was done to give the Qatar-brokered peace process “the greatest chance of success.”
He did not specify when the withdrawal would occur, but called for the deployment of “neutral forces” to monitor the ceasefire and prevent DR Congo’s army from regaining control of lost territory.
The United Nations says about 200,000 people have fled their homes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since the latest fighting began earlier this month.
At least 74 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and 83 were injured and hospitalized, it added.
Eastern DR Congo has been plagued by conflict for over 30 years, and numerous peace plans to end the conflict have failed.
The Trump administration hopes the peace plan will work and pave the way for U.S. companies to increase investments in the resource-rich region.
The U.S. State Department says the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral reserves will be worth about $25 trillion (21.2 trillion pounds) in 2023.
This included cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese and tantalum, which are needed to make electronic components used in computers, electric vehicles, cell phones, wind turbines and military hardware.
Rebels began a major advance earlier this year, seizing Goma, the capital of North Kivu province on the border with Rwanda.
At the time, South African troops were deployed to assist the Democratic Republic of Congo army, but were forced to withdraw after the M23 took over the city in January.
Soon after, rebels captured Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, the next largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The move against Uvira, the government’s last major stronghold in South Kivu, came after rebels breached defenses of the DR Congo army, its allied militias and the Burundian army.
The offensive began days before Kagame and Tshisekedi flew to Washington to ratify the agreement first signed last June.
