Burundi will send 100 soldiers as part of a regional force on Saturday to the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), media has reported.
According to reports, an unidentified senior Burundian army commander said on Friday that "about 100 soldiers" would be flying to Goma the next day. The troops will be stationed in Sake as well as the M23-controlled towns of Kitshanga and Kilorirwe.
The deployment of Burundian troops on Saturday was confirmed in a press release from the EAC on Friday, although the number of soldiers going to the DRC was not specified.
The M23 must leave by 30 March in accordance with a new timeline established by the East African leaders last month. The three-step process was supposed to begin on 28 February.
Earlier, the key negotiator in the eastern DRC peace process, Uhuru Kenyatta, urged the nations of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) to deploy their troops fully in the east of the country to protect controlled areas from clashes between the government forces and rebels.
The EAC established a regional force with the goal of stabilizing the eastern DRC and has asked the M23 to leave occupied territories during several meetings designed to defuse the crisis. But, thousands of people protested in Goma last month, accusing the EAC force of being indifferent to armed groups and demanding it to fight the rebels alongside government forces.
Large numbers of civilians have been displaced by the conflict in North Kivu province, which has heightened regional tensions. The DRC government has accused Rwanda of supporting the M23, a charge Kigali has refuted.
Late in 2021, the militia came out of hiding once more, and by the end of the year, they controlled large areas of North Kivu, including much of the area to the north of the country's capital Goma.
The eastern DRC has been plagued by rebel groups for decades; many of them are a result of local conflicts that erupted in the Nineties and the early 2000s. According to the UN organization, 5.5 million people were internally displaced within the nation as of last November.