GOMA, Congo (AP) — More than 400 civilians have been killed since the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group escalated its offensive in the South Kivu province in eastern Congo, regional officials said late Wednesday, adding that Rwandan special forces were in the strategic city of Uvira.
M23’s latest offensive comes despite a U.S.-mediated peace agreement signed last week by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington. The accord didn’t include the rebel group, which is negotiating separately with Congo and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating. However, it obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups and work to end hostilities.
“More than 413 civilians (have been) killed by bullets, grenades, and bombs, including many women, children, and young people” in localities between Uvira and Bukavu, the regional capital, the South Kivu government spokesperson said in a statement late Wednesday.
“According to the information gathered, the forces present in the city are composed of Rwandan special forces and some of their foreign mercenaries, operating in clear violation of the ceasefire as well as the Washington and Doha agreements, in total disregard of the commitments made," the statement added.
M23 said it had taken control of the strategic city of Uvira in eastern Congo on Wednesday afternoon, following a rapid offensive since the start of the month.
The announcement by M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, posted on the social platform X, encouraged citizens who fled to return to their homes. Uvira is an important port city on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika and is directly across from neighboring Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura.
Congo, the U.S. and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which had hundreds of members in 2021. Now, according to the U.N., the group has around 6,500 fighters.
While Rwanda denies that claim, it acknowledged last year that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo, allegedly to safeguard its security. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
Burundian Foreign Minister Edouard Bizimana, in an interview with French state media RFI on Wednesday, urged the U.S. to pressure Rwandan President Paul Kagame to ensure the implementation of the agreement signed in the U.S., saying, “M23 without Kagame, without Rwanda, is nothing.”
Bizimana said the capture of Uvira poses a threat to the economic capital, Bujumbura.
“We have registered more than 30,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in the last three days … Uvira and Bujumbura are coastal cities. What threatens Uvira also threatens Bujumbura."
On Thursday, Kanyuka said on X that “some Burundian forces have returned to their national territory, while others have entrenched themselves in the highlands,” referring to the hills of Uvira and Mininebwe in South Kivu.
“Since early Thursday morning, Dec. 11, 2025, these elements entrenched in the highlands have resumed, with unacceptable brutality, their campaign of extermination against our Tutsi Banyamulenge compatriots in Minembwe, indiscriminately launching bombs and using heavy artillery that is killing innocent civilians, including women and children," he wrote.
In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa urged M23 and Rwandan troops to cease all offensive operations and for the Rwandan Defense Forces to withdraw to Rwanda.
On Wednesday morning, the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the Congolese armed forces for the recent ceasefire violations in a statement on X.
“The DRC has openly stated that it would not observe any ceasefire, and was fighting to recapture territories lost to AFC/M23, even as the peace process unfolded,” it said.
More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, most prominently M23. The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, officials say.
Local U.N. partners report that more than 200,000 people have been displaced across the province since Dec. 2, with more than 70 killed. Civilians also have crossed into Burundi, and there have been reports of shells falling in the town of Rugombo, on the Burundian side of the border, raising concerns about the conflict spilling over into Burundian territory.
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Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Renovat Ndabashinze in Bujumbura, Burundi, contributed to this report.
FILE - M23 rebels escort government soldiers and police who surrendered to an undisclosed location in Goma, Democratic republic of the Congo, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A strike called by Portugal’s two main trade union confederations brought severe travel disruption Thursday and forced the cancellation of many medical appointments and school classes. Government and municipal services, including trash collection, were also badly hit.
The two labor groups representing close to a million Portuguese workers say it could be the country’s biggest walkout in more than 10 years as they contest the center-right government’s planned changes to employment laws.
The unions say the changes strip workers of entitlements, while the government argues they are needed to make the economy more supple and spur growth.
The proposed changes include making it easier for companies to fire workers, denying the right to strike in additional sectors of the economy and limiting breastfeeding breaks for mothers to the first two years of a baby’s life from the current open-ended dispensation.
Downtown Lisbon was strikingly quiet, with few pedestrians and light traffic compared to a usual weekday in the capital as some people went on strike and others worked from home to avoid the transport disruption.
At Lisbon international airport, dozens of flights were canceled as pilots, flight attendants and baggage handlers walked out. The airport was open but largely deserted.
Flag carrier TAP Air Portugal operated only 63 of its 283 scheduled flights, in line with the minimum level of service required by law. The airline had previously warned passengers about the strike and offered to put them on other flights.
Train and bus services across Portugal also ran a skeleton service. The Lisbon Metro subway said services were suspended at 11 p.m. Wednesday and would resume only on Friday morning.
Private companies were also affected, with manufacturing and distribution companies reporting walkouts.
Portugal has one of the European Union’s smallest economies and its workers are among the lowest paid in the 27-nation bloc. The average monthly wage is around 1,600 euros ($1,870) before tax, according to the National Statistics Institute. The minimum monthly wage earned by hundreds of thousands of workers is 870 euros ($1,018) before tax.
The Portuguese are also being pinched by a housing and cost of living crisis, as property prices soar and inflation sticks at just over 2%.
The European Commission expects Portugal to achieve GDP growth of around 2% this year, above the EU average of 1.4%. Unemployment stands at under 6%, roughly the EU average.
Trade unions planned street marches later Thursday. It is the first time since 2013 that the umbrella groups — the General Workers’ Union and the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers — have joined forces.
Social Democrat Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has described the strike as “senseless” because the country is doing well.
Helena Alves and Armando Franca in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
City buses are photographed in a parking lot, during a general strike to protest against a new labour package announced by the centre-right government, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
An employee walks alongside passenger trains parked at Campolide station, during a general strike to protest against a new labour package announced by the centre-right government, in Lisbon, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Trucks sit idle at a garbage processing center in Lisbon at the start of a general strike on Wednesday night, Dec. 10, 2025, held to protest a new labor package announced by Portugal's center-right government. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
A screen shows departing flights, many cancelled, at Lisbon Airport, at the start of a general strike to protest against a new labour package announced by the centre-right government, in Lisbon, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
A woman walks through a nearly deserted hall of the Lisbon airport at the start of a general strike to protest against a new labour package announced by the centre-right government, in Lisbon, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
Striking workers block the entrance to warehouses of the Portuguese postal services company stopping trucks leaving, at the start of a general strike to protest against a new labour package announced by the centre-right government, in Lisbon, Wednesday night, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
A police officer negotiates with striking workers blocking the movement of trucks at the gate to warehouses of the Portuguese postal services company, at the start of a general strike to protest against a new labour package announced by the centre-right government, in Lisbon, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
