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The Security Council condemned an offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23, demanded that Rwanda cease supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops. The Security Council also renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeepers, maintaining roughly 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution.
The UN Security Council urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces from eastern Congo and extended the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, for one year, as fighting in the region intensified despite a peace agreement.
The Security Council condemned an offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23, demanded that Rwanda cease supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops. The Security Council also renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeepers, maintaining roughly 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution.
The resolution comes as the M23 claimed on Wednesday to have withdrawn from Uvira, a strategic city in eastern Congo it had captured last week, under U.S. pressure. The Congolese government stated the withdrawal was “staged” and that the rebels were still in the city. The U.S. deputy representative told the Security Council on Friday that the M23 must immediately withdraw at least 75 kilometers from Uvira.
Congo, the United States, and UN experts accuse Rwanda of supporting the M23, which has grown from a few hundred members in 2021 to approximately 6,500 fighters, according to the UN.
Over 100 armed groups seek to establish themselves in mineral-rich eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda, the most significant being the M23. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.