M23 rebels staging an offensive in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will withdraw their forces from the town of Walikale, which they took control of this week, in support of efforts to address the conflict, a rebel alliance that includes M23 has said.
The Congo River Alliance said in a statement on Saturday that it had “decided to reposition its forces” from Walikale and surrounding areas.
The Congolese government said it hoped the move would be translated into concrete action after M23 this week pulled out of planned talks with Congolese authorities in Angola at the last minute due to European Union sanctions on some of its leaders and Rwandan officials.
It would have been its first direct engagement with DRC’s government after President Felix Tshisekedi reversed his longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels.
This decision was in line with a ceasefire declared in February and in support of peace initiatives, the alliance said in a statement that was greeted with scepticism by DRC government army officers.
A senior member of the alliance who did not wish to be named told the Reuters news agency that repositioning meant withdrawing to “give peace a chance”. The source declined to say where M23 rebels would withdraw.
“We are asking for Walikale and surroundings to remain demilitarised,” the source said. “If the FARDC (DRC’s army) and their allies come back, this means they want to relaunch hostilities.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told reporters: “We are going to see whether M23 will withdraw from Walikale and whether M23 will give priority to dialogue and peace … So we hope that this will be translated into concrete action.”
Walikale is the furthest west the rebels have reached in an unprecedented advance that has already overrun eastern DRC’s two largest cities since January.
Its capture put the rebels within 400km (250 miles) of Kisangani, the country’s fourth-biggest city with a bustling port at the Congo River’s farthest navigable point upstream of the capital Kinshasa, some 1,500km (930 miles) away.
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