M23 Rebels Pull Back From Key Positions in Eastern DRC Under US Pressure
The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group withdrew from several strategic positions in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on May 12, 2026, in what locals, military officials, and the rebels themselves described as a significant shift in the battlefields of South Kivu province. The withdrawal was confirmed by senior local official Paul Fikiri Mudeda, the army’s regional spokesperson Lieutenant Reagan Mbuyi, and a security source within the M23 itself.
The pullback centered on the town of Sange, a key crossroads 30 kilometers north of the city of Uvira, and nearby areas including Kabunambo, Mutarule, and Bwegera. Pro-government militia fighters known as the Wazalendo moved into Sange as the M23 departed, with residents describing scenes of jubilation. “Young people, women, children — even school kids — are all celebrating right now,” one inhabitant told the AFP news agency.
The Americans Apply Pressure
The withdrawal comes against a backdrop of sustained pressure from Washington. The United States has been attempting to enforce a peace deal between the M23 and the Congolese government — a deal that offers privileged access to the eastern DRC’s vast mineral riches in exchange for compliance. The M23 launched an offensive against Uvira in December 2025 as the DRC and Rwanda were ratifying a US-mediated peace agreement, a timing that complicated Washington’s calculations considerably.
The pressure intensified in the weeks that followed. On Friday, the United States again publicly called on all belligerents to respect a ceasefire. Early Monday, M23 fighters began leaving their positions north of Uvira near the border with Burundi, Rwanda’s southern neighbor. The group, however, maintained control of Kamanyola, a town 70 kilometers north of Uvira where the borders of the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi converge — a strategically vital junction that was explicitly not included in the withdrawal.
“We are returning to the positions we held before taking Uvira,” the M23 source told AFP, declining to be named. The remark suggests the group views the withdrawal as tactical rather than a capitulation — a repositioning under pressure rather than a surrender of ambitions.
A Thirty-Year Conflict in One of the World’s Richest Regions
For more than three decades, the mineral-rich eastern DRC has been a battleground for dozens of armed groups competing for control of mines that contain coltan, cobalt, gold, and other resources in demand globally. Since 2021, the M23 has progressively seized swathes of territory in Ituri and North Kivu, and its southward expansion into South Kivu — marked by the offensive against Uvira — represented a significant escalation.
The Uvira offensive was particularly notable because it extended the M23’s sphere of influence southward in a region where multiple armed groups, including the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) — a jihadist faction with its own brutal record — continue to operate. The withdrawal announced this week does not end that complexity. The Wazalendo militias moving into Sange are themselves a force with a complicated record. The broader question of who actually controls eastern DRC’s mining territories remains far from resolved.
The immediate reaction on the ground — particularly the scenes of celebration in Sange — reflects the exhaustion of a civilian population that has borne the brunt of this conflict for generations. Children born after the M23’s emergence in 2012 have known nothing but war. Whether this withdrawal represents a durable step toward peace or merely another chapter in a conflict shaped by regional rivalry, foreign meddling, and immense mineral wealth will depend on the willingness of all parties to sustain what American mediation has so far only temporarily imposed.