CONGO: Rwanda-backed M23 rebels staging an offensive in east Congo said on Saturday they would withdraw forces from the seized town of Walikale in support of peace efforts, having previously said they were leaving troops there as they pushed on to the capital.
The government said it hoped the move would be translated into concrete action, after M23 this week pulled out of planned talks with Congolese authorities at the last minute due to EU sanctions on some of its leaders and Rwandan officials.
It would have been their first direct engagement with Congo’s government after President Felix Tshisekedi reversed his longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels.
The Congo River Alliance, which includes M23, said in a statement on Saturday that it had “decided to reposition its forces” from Walikale and surrounding areas that M23 took control of this week.
This decision was in line with a ceasefire declared in February and in support of peace initiatives, it said in a statement that was greeted with skepticism by army officers.
A senior member of the alliance who did not wish to be named said repositioning meant withdrawing to “give peace a chance.” The source declined to say where M23 rebels would withdraw to.
“We are asking for Walikale and surroundings to remain demilitarised,” the source said. “If the FARDC (Congo’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.”

PEACE EFFORTS
Congo’s army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An army officer said he was skeptical about the announced withdrawal. Another officer said M23 was advancing toward Mubi, another town in the area, after the army and pro-government militia bombed Walikale’s airport and cut off some of M23’s road access.
“They now have a provision problem,” said the second officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They will not withdraw. They will move in front of (Walikale) and behind it.”
A M23 officer told Walikale residents on Thursday they were leaving a small group of soldiers there to provide security, while other soldiers “continue all the way to Kinshasa.”
Walikale is the furthest west the rebels have reached in an unprecedented advance that has already overrun eastern Congo’s two largest cities since January.
Its capture put the rebels within 400 km (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 1,500 km (930 miles) away.
There have been several attempts to resolve the spiralling conflict, rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches, including several ceasefires that were violated and regional summits to open up dialogue.
Congo, the United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has been providing arms and troops to the ethnic Tutsi-led M23. Rwanda denies this, saying its military has been acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the genocide.
The M23 alliance leader Corneille Naanga on Friday dismissed a joint call for an immediate ceasefire by Congo and Rwanda and reiterated demands for direct talks with Kinshasa, saying it was the only way to resolve the conflict.

MOSCOW: One year since the Moscow concert hall attack killed 145 people, Russian officials asserted Saturday that it was planned and organized by “the special services of an unfriendly state.”
The aim, according to a statement by Svetlana Petrenko, the representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, was to “destabilize the situation in Russia.”
Though she did not specify the “unfriendly state,” she noted that “six Central Asians” currently outside of Russia had been charged in absentia and placed on Russia’s wanted list for allegedly recruiting and organizing the training of four of the suspected perpetrators.
The four men, all of whom were identified in the media as citizens of Tajikistan, appeared in a Moscow court at the end of March last year on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
According to Petrenko, 19 people are currently in custody in Russia in relation to the attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.
A faction of the Daesh group has claimed responsibility for the massacre in which gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire. But Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have persistently claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine had a role in the attack. Kyiv has vehemently denied any involvement.