AFC/M23 announces it will leave the city of Uvira
The AFC/M23 movement said that its forces would leave Uvira, which it called a major step to build trust in the Doha Peace Process and end the eastern DR Congo conflict for good.
AFC/M23 said in a December 15 statement that the decision was based on “significant progress” in the Doha Peace Process, which included the signing of the Doha Framework Agreement on November 15, 2025.
The statement reads, “The Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC/M23) has decided to start a one-sided move to build trust so that the Doha Peace Process has the best chance of success in finding long-term solutions to the conflict.”
During the recent war in South Kivu, Uvira was taken over by AFC/M23. Uvira is on the border of Burundi and Lake Tanganyika and is an important place for trade and transportation.
Even though they said they were leaving, AFC/M23 worried about what they called a pattern in which the Congolese army (FARDC) and militias that support them use peace offers to take back land and attack civilians who are thought to support the movement.
The movement also looked at security issues in the area, especially the fact that armed groups who don’t like Burundi are working in the east of the Congo.
The statement continued, “AFC/M23 says again that it will not let groups like that use areas it has freed as safe spaces to plan hostile acts that could hurt the good-neighborly relations between our two countries.”
