Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have withdrawn from the strategic town of Walikale, describing the move as a goodwill gesture ahead of planned peace talks with the government next week.
M23 has seized eastern Congo's two largest cities in a swift advance since January that has resulted in thousands of deaths and forced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.
The fighting has raised fears of a wider regional war, as Congo's neighbours Uganda and Burundi also have troops in the region.
Congo's government and M23 plan to hold their first direct talks in Doha on April 9, sources from both camps told Reuters this week.
Situated along a road linking four eastern Congo provinces, Walikale is in an area rich in minerals including tin.
M23 pledged to withdraw from Walikale last month but initially failed to do so, accusing the Congolese army of going back on its own commitments and not withdrawing attack drones.
Two residents and a local official confirmed to Reuters this week that they had left the town. Army spokesperson Sylvain Ekenge told Reuters on Friday that Congolese troops were there, confirming M23 soldiers had left.
"If the forces of the Kinshasa regime continue their provocations or attacks on civilians in the liberated areas and on our positions, this gesture of goodwill will automatically be cancelled, and we will eliminate the threat at its source," Lawrence Kanyuka, spokesperson for the rebel alliance that includes M23, said in a statement on X on Thursday.
Doctors Without Borders said this week that civilians, along with its own teams, had been trapped by the violence in Walikale and that essential medical supplies would soon run out there.
The United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to the ethnic Tutsi-led M23.
Rwanda has denied backing M23 and says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo's army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
Conor McGregor has been issued an 18-month suspension for breaching the UFC’s anti-doping regulations after missing three scheduled drug tests in 20...
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met on Monday with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said via the countr...
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s vehicle was attacked on Tuesday as his convoy travelled through Cañar province, where protesters demonstrating ...
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met on Tuesday with a delegation from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliam...
Türkiye’s benchmark stock index, the BIST 100, closed Tuesday at 10,814.11 points, up 0.74% from the previous session....
The UN Human Rights Office said on Friday that armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, including M23 rebels and government forces, committed serious violations that may amount to war crimes, citing killings, rapes and torture.
When Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militants stormed her village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Maman Soki lost her daughter, sister, and neighbours.
Rescue operations continued this Tuesday at the Lomera artisanal gold mine in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after a shaft collapse over the weekend trapped an unknown number of miners underground.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
The newly elected mayor of Herdecke in northwestern Germany, Social Democrat Iris Stalzer, was seriously injured in a knife attack near her home by an unknown assailant or assailants.
Conor McGregor has been issued an 18-month suspension for breaching the UFC’s anti-doping regulations after missing three scheduled drug tests in 2024, according to a statement released by Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) on Tuesday.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s vehicle was attacked on Tuesday as his convoy travelled through Cañar province, where protesters demonstrating against the government’s decision to lift fuel subsidies threw rocks and other objects at his car.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met on Tuesday with a delegation from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, marking the first visit to Ukraine by the group’s president, Pere Joan Pons.
The European Parliament has passed new legislation making it easier to suspend visa-free travel for nationals of third countries found to violate human rights or ignore international court rulings.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment