Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) public officials have trickled back to work in recent weeks in the contested town of Uvira on the Burundi border, where a skeleton staff has found ransacked offices and damaged buildings.
AFC/M23 fighters seized Uvira, a trading hub on Lake Tanganyika and a gateway to neighbouring Burundi, in December and pulled out a week later under US pressure.
Their withdrawal allowed DRC forces to move back into the town in mid‑January and to begin re‑establishing state control.
Mayor Kifara Kapenda Kik’y said the town hall had been looted in his absence, with windows smashed, furniture broken and files strewn across the floors.
“We are back, but unfortunately we found everything ransacked,” he told Reuters as he walked through his destroyed office. “Everything needs to be redone.”
Kik’y said only a minimal administration would operate for now until public servants, many of whom fled to neighbouring Burundi, are able to return.
Addressing staff in a damaged hall, he said authorities aimed to restore order through law rather than reprisals.
AFC/M23’s capture of Uvira followed a wider lightning advance across the eastern DRC last year, during which the group captured two major cities further north, Goma and Bukavu. The fighting displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The DRC and AFC/M23 have been engaged in Qatar‑mediated talks and agreed to a ceasefire in October. Last week, both sides finalised terms for monitoring the truce, clearing the way for the UN peacekeeping mission Monusco to be deployed to Uvira.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean‑Pierre Lacroix told reporters in Kinshasa on Tuesday that Monusco would begin with aerial reconnaissance flights but needed security guarantees from all sides before sending helicopters and personnel into the city.
The acting head of Monusco, Vivian van de Perre, told reporters the first aerial reconnaissance mission to Uvira would take place “in the coming days”. Any UN deployment to support the ceasefire will be rolled out progressively.
Van de Perre began a visit to Goma, a city that has been under AFC/M23 control since January 2025, to meet the parties involved and advance preparations for the ceasefire-monitoring mission.
She arrived aboard a UN helicopter, landing at Goma airport for the first time since its closure after rebels seized the city.
Humanitarian agencies have called the reopening of the airport essential for medical evacuations and aid deliveries.
“I hope this marks the beginning of the gradual reopening of Goma airport for the benefit of the population,” Van de Perre said.
Monusco withdrew from South Kivu in June 2024 at the DRC government’s request, after more than two decades of operations in the province.
Reuters
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