New clashes were reported on Friday in the Uvira region in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), local media said.
Residents told the press they had seen “a plane pounding the middle of Kalundu port,” while others heard “explosions and gunfire” on the hill of Kavimvira, where fighting has pitted pro-Kinshasa forces against the M23 rebel group. This follows the capture of Uvira by the M23 on 10 December, after the group had seized the major eastern cities of Goma in January and Bukavu in February as part of an offensive in South Kivu along the Burundian border.
Earlier this month the M23 announced it would withdraw from Uvira under pressure from US mediators, but the Congolese government said the announcement was a diversion and that combatants were still positioned around the city, prompting continued tensions and sporadic fighting.
Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand people in eastern DRC, controls a land border with Burundi and has seen ongoing instability despite peace efforts brokered in Washington.
