DRC says M23 vow to pull out of Uvira is a ‘distraction’

The DRC government has said the M23 armed group’s unfulfilled pledge to withdraw from the key town of Uvira is a “distraction”, as the group said its conditions for a pullout were yet to be met.

Patrick Muyaya, a spokesperson for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government, said Wednesday that the group’s statement it would withdraw from the town in South Kivu province, in line with a request from US mediators, was a “non-event, a diversion, a distraction”.

“The son, M23, offers itself in sacrifice before the US mediator to protect the father, Rwanda”, Muyaya said, referring to Kigali’s support for the group.

“The intention is to distract the American mediation team, which is preparing to take measures against Rwanda”, Muyaya told Reuters.

Later on Wednesday, footage aired exclusively on Al Jazeera appeared to show dozens of fighters from the group and several vehicles on the move near the M23’s main base in Uvira.

Reporting from the town, Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani described the movement of the forces as a “withdrawal” and said the group was “voluntarily leaving”.

“These are the soldiers leaving the main headquarters, the main operational base of the town of Uvira. They are going now, leaving. We cannot say exactly where they are going, how many kilometres out from this town of Uvira”, he said.

It was not immediately clear if the group was withdrawing from the town.

The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic town last week, imperilling a tenuous US-brokered peace agreement between Kinshasa and Kigali signed amid fanfare just days earlier and raising fears of a widening conflict.

The seizure of the town led ​​US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to accuse Rwanda, which denies backing M23 rebels, of a “clear violation” of the deal, promising that Washington would “take action to ensure promises made to the president are kept”.

Earlier this week, the leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo&nbsp, rebel coalition, which includes the M23 group, said their fighters would withdraw from the strategic town near the border with Burundi, in accordance with the request from US mediators.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the coalition, described the withdrawal as a “unilateral trust-building measure in order to give the … peace process the maximum chance to succeed”.

But despite that pledge, M23 fighters remained visible in the town earlier on Wednesday, stationed near government offices and along major roads, saying there were conditions for any withdrawal.

M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma had told Reuters that the group was “ready to leave, but our conditions have to be reviewed”.

The group said a neutral force must be deployed to maintain security in the town if the group were to pull out, to avoid a repeat of previous withdrawals that it says have led to renewed violence.

Jean Jacques Purusi, governor of South Kivu province where Uvira is located, told Reuters that the M23 fighters “do not want to leave”.

Markets reopen

Al Jazeera’s Uaykani reported earlier on Wednesday that a fragile sense of normality was returning to the town after days of fighting.

Markets were reopening, and traffic was returning to the streets, he said – although daily life remained overshadowed by the ongoing political instability.

Resident Feza Mariam said the priority for locals was an end to the fighting.

“We don’t know anything about the political process that they’re talking about”, she said.

“The only thing we need is peace. Anyone who is able to provide us with peace is welcome here”.

Fellow resident Eliza Mapendo said locals had suffered “a lot”, but that calm had been restored sufficiently for daily life to begin to resume.

“For now, we feel secure and we’re working freely in this market”, she said, adding that the sense of normality was fragile.

“They could attack without any reason and take your business away”.

Meanwhile, DRC’s army spokesperson, Sylvain Ekenge, told Reuters that fighting was continuing daily across the conflict-hit east, where M23 made a rapid advance this year.

Source: Aljazeera