Eastern DRC : a new military escalation shakes the Uvira region

SOS Médias Burundi

Uvira, December 26, 2025 – A drone belonging to the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), operating from Bujumbura, Burundi’s commercial capital, conducted a military operation on Friday at the public port of Kalundu, in the city of Uvira, South Kivu province. The aircraft struck targets attributed to AFC/M23 rebels on Lake Tanganyika twice.

According to local sources, the strikes occurred around 7:00 a.m. The drone reportedly targeted speedboats belonging to the rebels, stationed in the Kalundu port area.

“This morning, a drone attacked speedboats twice that were in the port of Kalundu.” “We saw smoke rising above the lake,” a local resident reported.

Later that morning, around 11:00 a.m., numerous gunshots were heard in several areas surrounding Uvira, notably in Katongo, Kigongo, and the Kakuba mountains. Heavy and light gunfire plunged the population into fear and panic.

Faced with this deteriorating security situation, many residents closed their shops and businesses, particularly in the southern part of Uvira. Some commercial activities, however, continued despite the risks.

Around 2:30 p.m., an FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) military aircraft was reportedly bombed while flying over Lake Tanganyika, near Katongo, in the Uvira territory. The aircraft, which had departed from Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika province, was returning from a bombing mission against M23 positions in Kiliba and Rutemba, without causing significant damage, according to local sources.

The same sources indicate that the pilot and his co-pilot, a Russian national, were killed instantly. No official statement from the Congolese authorities has yet confirmed the casualty figures for this incident.

A still tense security situation

This latest escalation comes the day after the AFC/M23 rebels withdrew from the town of Makobola. On Thursday, December 25, 2025, the FARDC, supported by the Wazalendo militia, regained control of this area located between the territories of Uvira and Fizi, following the rebels’ withdrawal.

Makobola had been occupied by M23 fighters following recent military offensives, which had also led to the temporary capture of the city of Uvira.

Although the rebels officially announced their withdrawal from the city on December 16, 2025, several local sources claim that elements affiliated with the AFC/M23 remain present at certain strategic points in Uvira, where they are posing as security agents.

The city of Uvira is located just a few kilometers from Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, where United Nations agencies and part of the central administration are concentrated. It fell to the rebels on the night of December 9-10, 2025, before they announced a conditional withdrawal.

According to local sources, these rebels are currently monitoring the land border between Burundi and the DRC, which is officially closed by the Burundian authorities.

A regional conflict with multiple ramifications

Reactivated in 2021, the M23, composed mainly of Congolese Tutsis, controls several strategic locations in North and South Kivu, including their respective capitals, Goma and Bukavu, as well as important mining areas.

Among these is the strategic Rubaya area, located in the Masisi territory of North Kivu. This site is one of the world’s largest coltan deposits and supplies a significant portion of the world’s tantalum, a mineral essential to the electronics industry and new technologies.

The movement is now part of the Congo River Alliance (CRA), led by Corneille Nangaa, former president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), which advocates for the establishment of a federal state in the DRC.

Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the M23, while Rwanda denounces the alleged support of the DRC and Burundi for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu armed group whose members are accused of participating in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis.

Burundi, for its part, has deployed more than 10,000 soldiers to the DRC since March 2023 to support the FARDC and the local Wazalendo militias, further complicating an already explosive regional conflict. Hostilities continue despite the Washington Accords signed between the DRC and Rwanda on December 4, 2025, in which Burundi participated as an observer, represented by its president, Évariste Ndayishimiye.