Four sources on Tuesday confirmed that Burundi is withdrawing its forces from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where they had been fighting against M23 rebels.
The sources said Burundi troops withdrawing from the war have dealt a major blow to Congo’s army as it struggles to halt a rebel advance.
But a spokesman for the Burundian military dismissed reports of the ongoing pull-out as “fake”, and said in a post on X that his country’s soldiers were “continuing to execute their missions in their areas of responsibility” in Congo.
The pull-out came as the United Nations human rights office accused M23 rebels of executing children in eastern Congo during their advance, which has seen the group seize the region’s two largest cities.
“A number of trucks filled with (Burundian) military arrived in the country since yesterday” through a border post, a Burundian army officer said, confirming movements also described by two U.N. sources and an African diplomat.
Burundian soldiers fought alongside the Congolese to try to defend Kavumu, home to the airport that services Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, which fell over the weekend.
It was the rebels’ most significant prize since they seized Goma, the biggest city in eastern Congo, in late January.
Burundi has had soldiers in eastern Congo for years, initially to hunt down Burundian rebels there, but more recently, to aid in the fight against M23.
The well-equipped M23 is the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo’s volatile east.
In their march south, the rebels on Tuesday entered the town of Kamanyola, some 50 km (31 miles) south of Bukavu, according to two residents and an M23 source.
Fighting between rebels and the Congolese army also took place on Tuesday in Lubero territory, north of Goma, local official Kambale Vighuliro and army colonel Alain Kiwewa told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Congo President Felix Tshisekedi met his Angolan counterpart Joao Lourenco in Luanda, the Angolan capital, to discuss the accelerated deterioration of the security situation in eastern Congo, the Angolan presidency said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Rwanda rejects allegations from Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports the group with arms and troops.
It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.
Congo rejects Rwanda’s complaints and says Rwanda has used its proxy militias to loot its minerals.
