CLASHES INTENSIFY IN DRC'S BORDER CITY OF UVIRA BETWEEN PRO-GOVERNMENT FORCES AND M23 REBELS. (PHOTO).

Clashes intensify in DRC's border city of Uvira between pro-government forces and M23 rebels

Clashes broke out on Monday near Uvira in the Democratic Republic of Congo between the M23 rebels and pro-government forces, days after M23 vowed to withdraw from the city, local sources said.

M23 rebels had seized the strategic city near the border with Burundi earlier this month, shortly after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal in Washington that US President Donald Trump hailed as a "great miracle."

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since accused Rwanda of violating the peace agreement it signed with its neighbour on December 4, and vowed unspecified "action" in response. Kigali, however, denies, instead claiming that its neighbours, DRC and Burundi, are individually breaching the ceasefire agreement.

The leader of the M23's political branch, Corneille Nangaa, announced that the group would "unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira, as requested by the US mediators."

Exchange of gunfire

However, plainclothes M23 members stayed behind in the city, according to local and security sources.

M23 and pro-Kinshasa forces called the Wazalendo traded gunfire on Monday "that could be heard across Uvira", Mafikiri Mashimango, a local civil society leader, told AFP.

People remained indoors for safety and activity in the city was "paralysed", according to a resident contacted by telephone.

Clashes appeared to be focused on surrounding hills and neighbourhoods in the south and southwest of the city, including near the port of Kalundu on Lake Tanganyika, residents reported.

'Media coup'

A bomb landed in Mulongwe, southeast of Uvira, "and bullets are flying above our houses", said a local.

DR Congo's armed forces have called the M23 withdrawal promise "a media coup designed to fool public opinion" and accused the group of re-deploying in the hillsides above Uvira.