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20h ago

M23 Rebels Press Into Uvira as Group Claims Control, Burundi Closes Border

A rebel push days after a U.S.-brokered Rwanda–DRC accord has thrown the deal’s credibility into question.

A woman balances a sack of flour on her head as she crosses a road in Uvira on December 9, 2025. Intense fighting is taking place on Tuesday in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the M23 group, supported by the Rwandan army, continuing its rapid advance towards Uvira, a strategic Congolese city located near the border with neighboring Burundi and now under threat. The anti-government armed group and the Rwandan soldiersestimated at 6,000 to 7,000 on Congolese soil according to UN expertswere reportedly only about fifteen kilometers north of the city, home to several hundred thousand inhabitants, as of Tuesday morning, according to security and military sources cited by AFP. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
FILE - M23 rebels enter the centre of east Congo's second-largest city, Bukavu, and take control of the South Kivu province administrative office, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga, File)
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U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance meet Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

Overview

  • M23 announced it had seized Uvira, while residents and security sources reported rebel entry, fleeing Congolese troops and ongoing gunfire with control still disputed.
  • Burundi shut key crossings and designated them military zones as officials counted more than 30,000 arrivals from Congo within three days and the UN tallied roughly 200,000 newly displaced in South Kivu.
  • Uvira has functioned as the DRC’s administrative and military hub in South Kivu since Bukavu fell, making its potential loss a major strategic setback for Kinshasa.
  • Congo’s foreign minister urged Washington to widen targeted sanctions on Rwandan officials and institutions to restore confidence in the U.S. peace push.
  • Rwanda denied aiding M23 and accused Congo and Burundi of breaching ceasefire terms, while the International Contact Group and Western partners pressed for the offensive to stop and for Rwandan forces to withdraw.