The M23 armed group has agreed, at the request of the United States, to withdraw from the strategic town of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which it seized last week.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo coalition that includes M23, confirmed the withdrawal in a signed statement posted online.

However, reports from Uvira indicated that M23 fighters were still present in the town as of Tuesday morning.

The coalition cautioned that past withdrawals had been exploited by the Congolese army to retake territory and target civilians seen as sympathetic to rebels, Al-Jazeera has reported.

M23 framed the move as a “unilateral trust-building measure” to support the Doha peace process and called for neutral forces to oversee demilitarization and protect the town’s population and infrastructure.