The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group announced Tuesday that it will withdraw its forces from the strategic city of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following a direct request from the United States.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance—the insurgent coalition that includes M23—said the withdrawal was a "unilateral trust-building measure in order to give the Doha peace process the maximum chance to succeed."

The announcement came less than a week after the rebels seized Uvira, a move that threatened to upend a U.S.-mediated peace agreement signed just days earlier by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington.

In a statement posted to X, the rebel coalition called for "adequate measures" to be put in place to manage Uvira, including "demilitarization, protecting its population and infrastructure, and monitoring the ceasefire with a neutral force."

The statement did not specify whether M23's withdrawal is contingent on implementing those measures.

Despite the announcement, Uvira residents reported Tuesday that rebel fighters remained in the town.

A rapid offensive and its toll

M23 took control of Uvira last week following a rapid offensive launched at the start of the month. More than 400 people have been killed and approximately 200,000 displaced, according to regional officials.

The assault on Uvira, located on the shores of Lake Tanganyika near the border with Burundi, represented a significant escalation in the conflict that has ravaged mineral-rich eastern Congo for three decades.

The rebels seized the city less than a week after the presidents of Congo and Rwanda met with President Donald Trump in Washington and affirmed their commitment to a peace deal known as the Washington Accords.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Rwanda's actions in eastern Congo violated the agreement.

"Rwanda's blatant violation of the Washington Accords is unacceptable," Rubio wrote on X. He warned that the Trump administration would "take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept."

The Washington Accords did not include M23, which is negotiating separately with the Congolese government in talks hosted by Qatar. However, the agreement obligates Rwanda to halt support for armed groups like M23 and work to end hostilities.

Rwanda denies backing the rebels. A July report by a United Nations group of experts said Rwanda exercised command and control over M23.

Regional spillover concerns

The rebel push into Uvira brought the conflict to the doorstep of neighboring Burundi, which has maintained troops in eastern Congo for years.

Around 64,000 refugees from Congo have arrived in Burundi since the start of the month, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The Burundian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at least 30,000 Congolese crossed the border since Dec. 8.

There have been reports of shells falling in the town of Rugombo on the Burundian side of the border, heightening fears of a broader regional war.

Paul-Simon Handy, the East Africa regional director at the Institute for Security Studies, told Al Jazeera that M23's seizure of Uvira was "a negotiating tactic" to create facts on the ground and push the Congolese government "to make more territorial and economic concessions."

He said the withdrawal announcement was likely "a direct consequence of the very strong" reaction by the United States.

"I struggle to see the strategic objective they are trying to gain by aggrieving the main backer of the peace agreement," Handy said.

"Wanting to give peace a chance would have meant not taking over Uvira after the signing of the Washington and the Doha agreements," he added. "Taking over and now saying we are withdrawing is a tactic we've seen elsewhere by the M23—taking over territories, appearing to withdraw, to take them again."

Parallel peace tracks

The M23 withdrawal announcement referenced the Doha peace process, a separate negotiation track between the rebels and the Congolese government mediated by Qatar.

A framework ceasefire deal was reached in Doha in November, establishing a roadmap to stop the deadly fighting and improve the humanitarian situation. That agreement was built on a declaration of principles signed in July but did not tackle questions over M23's withdrawal from Congo.

The framework deal was never respected on the ground.

A rebel source told Reuters that both M23 and Congolese forces would withdraw five kilometers from Uvira to establish a buffer zone—a proposal M23 had floated at a press conference last week.

Congo and Burundi did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

A worsening humanitarian crisis

The conflict in eastern Congo has created one of the world's most significant humanitarian emergencies. More than 7 million people have been displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which has grown from hundreds of members in 2021 to approximately 6,500 fighters, according to the United Nations.

More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda. M23 is the most prominent.

The insurgents staged a lightning offensive in January, seizing eastern Congo's two largest cities in fighting that killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Since then, M23 has worked to establish a parallel administration in the east, potentially setting the vast Central African country up for an enduring fracture.

Al Jazeera's Alain Uaykani, reporting from Uvira on Tuesday morning, said "nothing had changed" on the ground, with M23 fighters still visible throughout the town.

He noted the rebel coalition had warned that the Congolese army and its allies had "exploited similar withdrawals to retake territory and target civilians perceived as sympathetic to the rebels."