Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo – On the roads of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu province, rebels are pulling back from the key city they seized last week. But not all residents of the area they occupied appear glad to see them go.The latest surge in violence in the DRC’s east began more than a week ago. Last Tuesday, fighters with the M23 rebel group that has waged a years-long rebellion against the government, stormed into the strategic city of Uvira – located along the border with Rwanda and Burundi, and the last real eastern stronghold of the Congolese army.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe fighters, which the United Nations and United States say are backed by Rwanda, have engaged in fierce battles with Congolese soldiers and their allied “Wazalendo” militias, which had been using Uvira as a base since M23 seized other regional capitals from the government’s control earlier this year.The M23 offensive came just days after a regional peace agreement was signed in the US between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, and less than a month after the signing in Qatar of a separate accord to end years of fighting between M23 and the DRC government.By last Wednesday, M23 had pushed out the army and taken control of Uvira.One day later, we arrived in the city as the first team of international reporters to make it there since the takeover.On the road there, we could see and smell the evidence of war: corpses strewn along the way, including soldiers and some civilians; burned-out carcasses of military vehicles; and groups of d …
