The M23 rebel group on Friday announced its complete withdrawal from the strategic Rumangabo military barracks it captured in October 2022 in North Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.The rebels continue pulling out of their occupied territories in a bid to respect the resolutions of the Luanda mini-summit held in November 2022.

The regional leaders’ mini-summit on the security crisis in eastern DR Congo resolved that the M23 rebels who are fighting the Congolese army in North Kivu province withdraw from territories they had captured and occupied.

Leaders also, among others, ordered the FDLR, a genocidal group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, to disarm immediately and embark on an “unconditional repatriation”.

This has not happened.

After pulling out from their positions in Kibumba in December last year, to cede ground to the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) deployed a month earlier, Lawrence Kanyuka, the M23’s political spokesperson, on Friday confirmed the total pull out of the Rumangabo military camp.

“We expect a reciprocal gesture from the Congolese government and reiterated that fighting would not bring an end to the ongoing conflict,” Kanyuka said.

The rebels are calling upon the government in Kinshasa to initiate direct talks and to address the root causes of the “cycles of wars and violence in our country.