Fighting between warring parties in the volatile east of DR Congo appeared to have calmed Thursday, local sources told AFP.
They were speaking a day after the United States announced a 15-day extension of a humanitarian truce between the M23 rebels and government forces.
“A precarious calm is being observed,” army spokesperson Lieutenant Mbuyi Reagan told AFP.
Residents in the province told AFP that there had been some shooting near the southern front of the conflict but no fighting between the M23 and Congolese army.
The M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda, launched an offensive in the North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the end of 2021 and since then has seized large swathes of territory.
Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said Wednesday that Washington welcomed the 15-day extension.
It is set to last until 11:59 pm (2159 GMT) on August 3 and “recommits the parties to the conflict to silence their weapons and provide humanitarian personnel unfettered access to vulnerable populations,” she added.
The initial truce began at midnight local time on July 5 and was due to continue through July 19, the White House National Security Council said.
Since that time fighting has decreased in intensity but the truce has not always been respected.
On July 15 two children and two teenagers were killed in a bombardment around 15 kilometers (nine miles) west of provincial capital Goma.
Watson condemned the “civilian loss of life.”
Humanitarian groups on Wednesday decried the situation in east DRC and warned the conflict could escalate regionally.
Even if the fighting between rebels and DR Congo armed forces has fallen since the start of the truce, “all parties are in the process of preparing to resume the war,” warned the president of Congo Peace Network, Patrick Kikandi.
“Our soldiers on the ground are reorganising. We are receiving reinforcements from other provinces,” Lieutenant Reagan said.
According to a separate security source, army commanders are meeting in the Congolese capital Kinshasa to plan a counterattack to try retake areas occupied by the M23 and Rwandan army.
