Rwanda accused the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi of deliberately violating a recently signed peace agreement in eastern DRC in a statement Wednesday, a day after Rwandan-backed armed fighters entered a key city.

According to military and security sources, the militia’s fighters entered the strategic border city of Uvira at the gates of Burundi late Tuesday, after the United States and European powers urged the M23 to “immediately halt” its offensive and for Rwanda to pull its troops out of the eastern DRC.

As the M23 appeared set to seize the last major settlement in South Kivu province it had yet to capture, scores of Congolese soldiers mingled among the civilians fleeing to Burundi, which has sent troops to help the DRC fight the Kigali-backed M23, according to military sources.

In a statement on X, the Rwandan foreign ministry said recent violations “cannot be placed on Rwanda” and claimed the Congolese and Burundian armies had “systematically” bombed villages close to Rwanda’s border.

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As such, the statement added that “the AFC/M23 has said it has been forced to counter”, a reference to the River Congo Alliance (AFC) that is a military-political coalition to which the M23 belongs.

“These deliberate violations of recently negotiated agreements constitute serious obstacles to peace,” the statement said.

On Monday, both the DRC and Burundi accused Rwanda of violating the agreement, brokered by US President Donald Trump, which aimed to end the long-running conflict.

Kinshasa and Kigali signed the deal less than a week ago, on December 4.

The M23’s latest offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, two key provincial capitals in the mineral-rich eastern DRC, which has been plagued by fighting for three decades.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from the Burundian economic capital Bujumbura.

The country deployed about 10,000 soldiers to the eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

AFP