United States Senator Lindsey Graham has said he is saddened to hear that AFC/M23 movement forces withdrawing from Uvira, a strategic town in eastern DR Congo that they had captured on December 10, are being attacked by the Congolese army coalition.
The rebel movement on Wednesday, December 17, begun withdrawing its forces from the town in accordance with an announcement it made earlier this week as a major confidence-building step aimed at advancing the Doha Peace Process and achieving a lasting solution to the conflict in eastern DR Congo.
"I am pleased to see reports of M23 troops withdrawing from Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, I am disheartened to hear these withdrawing troops are being attacked,” Sen. Graham said in a post on X.
Early morning, on Friday, December 19, Bertrand Bisimwa, the AFCM23 rebellion&039;s deputy coordinator, said: "This morning, from 6:38 AM 19/12/2025 to now, Mikenke area is under heavy bombings by the Kinshasa régime's coalition forces.”
Mikenke is an area situated in the hauts plateaux (high plateaus) of the Fizi territory, of South Kivu Province, about 24 kilometers north of Minembwe town.
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The Congolese coalition forces, with the direct and active participation of the Burundian army, continue carrying out a premeditated, systematic, and targeted extermination campaign against the Banyamulenge Tutsi civilian population in South Kivu Province, the AFC/M23 movement said on December 13.
Throughout the day, on December 12, and in the early hours of December 13, AFC/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said Sukhoi-25 fighter jets, combat helicopters, and military drones, operating from the territory of neighbouring Burundi, "conducted indiscriminate aerial attacks against the densely populated Banyamulenge villages of Mikenke and Rwesankuku, in flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”
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On Friday, December 19, Bisimwa said: "It's really positive development to see the M23 troops withdrawing from Uvira but it will be most positive to see Uvira and its people being secured from negative forces and their negative ideology.”
Despite their withdrawal, AFC/M23 earlier warned against what it described as a pattern in which the Congolese army coalition exploits peace gestures to retake territory and target civilians accused of sympathising with the movement.
"Based on past experiences where FARDC, Wazalendo and their allies have sought to take advantage of AFC/M23’s trust-building measures to retake control of previously lost territory and target the population perceived as sympathetic to the Alliance, AFC/M23 calls on the guarantors of the peace process to establish adequate measures for the management of the city, including its demillitarisation, the protection of its population and infrastructure, and the monitoring of the ceasefire through the deployment of a neutral force,” read the rebels’ December 15 statement.
‘Kinshasa persists in systematic extermination of our compatriots’
In another post on X, rebel spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka reiterated that AFC/M23 "has declared a unilateral ceasefire, in a spirit of responsibility and in order to offer a real chance for the return of peace.”
However, he added, Kinshasa "persists in implementing its plan for the systematic extermination of our compatriots, in flagrant violation of all its commitments.”
On Friday, December 19, Kanyuka said, from 5:00 a.m., DR Congo coalition forces launched attacks using kamikaze drones and naval forces, targeting densely populated areas as well as rebel positions at Makobola, originating from Baraka.
At 5:30 a.m., the same forces attacked Minembwe using drones and heavy artillery, sowing terror among the civilian population, he said.
Kanyuka added: "The AFC/M23 calls upon the Congolese people and international partners to bear witness to these repeated and deliberate violations of the ceasefire, as well as to the continuation of the massacres of our compatriots. These acts demonstrate unequivocally that the Kinshasa regime seeks neither peace nor the protection of civilians, but persists in perpetuating violence and impunity.”