The AFC/M23 coalition has announced it is considering a return to the city of Uvira, following its recent withdrawal of all its fighters. The group claims the vacuum was quickly filled by opposing forces, who they accuse of immediately beginning to kill Congolese of Banyamulenge ethnicity.
The announcement was made by AFC/M23 leaders while visiting over 250 displaced Congolese citizens who fled Uvira for Kamanyola. These civilians reportedly escaped after government-aligned forces, fighting for the Kinshasa government, began killing Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, as well as looting and raping.
Freddy Kanika, the Deputy Executive Secretary of AFC/M23, was among the leaders visiting the displaced. He consoled them, stating the coalition stands with them in these difficult times.
“The nightmares you’ve had, sleepless nights, are shared by others far from Uvira who also cannot sleep,” Kanika said. “The tears you’ve shed… I didn’t come to tell you we heard about it, I came to tell you we cried with you, we suffered with you. Our hearts are as broken as yours.”
Kanika revealed that members of his own family, including his mother and three siblings, were killed in the same region in 1996. He emphasized that regardless of events, Congolese must live together in their country.
“However, this country is ours,” he stated. “We will live in it with those who are wise, and we will live in it with those who are not. No one loves this country more than we do; no other group has shed as much blood for this country as we have.”
He urged the Banyamulenge community not to be consumed by despair over these evil acts and called on them to rise up and fight for their rights.
Kanika explained that AFC/M23’s decision to withdraw from Uvira came from discussions involving U.S. mediation, and he was one of two representatives for the group in those talks.
He noted this was not the first time they had ceded captured territory, recalling a withdrawal of over 70 km in 2022, which was followed by atrocities committed by their rivals.
“At that time, people died,” he said. “You remember they burned the area known as Nturo, they went and set fire to all the houses, killing people.”
He framed this withdrawal as a tactical move in a liberation war and said it should not be seen as abandonment or cause for public alarm.
“Be patient, these are difficult times,” Kanika urged. “We will return to Uvira. Uvira is ours. No one will come to chase us away from it. We will live there, and we will live there with others. We do not wish for things to happen this way, but it does not prevent us from going back.”
Lawrence Kanyuka, the AFC/M23 Political Spokesperson, who was also on the visit, described the displaced as brothers and even parents, as they share the Congolese nation.
He said these communities began facing problems when AFC/M23 decided to fully withdraw from Uvira, and the city was taken over by opposing factions.
“They immediately started looting their homes, raping them, and pillaging,” Kanyuka said. “So we came to welcome them, console them, and tell them we are in this together.”
Kanyuka added that the tears of Uvira’s residents continue to be felt by AFC/M23, as they too are pained by the actions of the “Wazalendo” (patriots) militias allied with the FARDC (Congolese army) and the FDLR rebel group.
He claimed that these rival forces began firing on AFC/M23 defensive positions and even on civilian activities.
“We continue to tell the international community that the Banyamulenge are persecuted,” Kanyuka said. “Their churches are burned, their homes are burned, they are shot at, bullets rain on them day and night.”
Prior to withdrawing from Uvira, AFC/M23 had requested the city be secured by neutral forces. However, after pulling out their troops, the area was entered by the FARDC and its allied factions, including the Wazalendo, FDLR, and the Burundian army.
