DR Congo accuses Rwanda of killing 1,500 civilians in past month

Just days after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a US-brokered peace deal on December 4, the M23 took the key city of Uvira, causing tens of thousands to flee across the border into Burundi.

"The provisional death toll of civilian victims of Rwandan operations, which have seen the combined use of bombs and kamikaze drones... since the beginning of December, stands at more than 1,500," according to a government statement dated Wednesday.

The DRC also accused Kigali of sending "three new Rwandan battalions" into the eastern South Kivu province, with an eye to advancing towards the "strategic Kalemie axis" in the southeastern mining province of Tanganyika.

Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of the mineral-rich Congolese east with Rwanda's backing, displacing hundreds of thousands and triggering a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

After launching its latest offensive on December 2 following a six-month lull, the armed group took Uvira on December 10, and with it control of the land border with the DRC's ally Burundi.

Washington accused Rwanda of violating the peace agreement -- hailed by US President Donald Trump as a "miracle" deal, despite the M23 offensive -- the group said it would withdraw from the city of several thousand people.

But local and security forces have reported that plainclothes M23 members stayed behind in the city, while both Washington and the DRC have cast doubt on the sincerity of the M23's announcement.

The capture of Uvira came nearly a year after the M23 took the major eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces.

According to the United Nations, more than 80,000 people have fled across the border to Burundi following the M23's latest advance, which has also internally displaced at least half a million within South Kivu alone.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has condemned the "scale and sophistication" of Rwanda's involvement in the eastern DRC, accusing Kigali of deploying up to 7,000 troops there.

While denying offering the M23 military support, Rwanda insists that it faces an existential threat from the presence in the Congolese east of armed groups with links to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.

The M23 denies all links to Rwanda and insists its aim is to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.