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Hundreds of police officers hunted on Sunday for a gunman who killed two people and wounded nine others at Brown University, plunging the eastern US campus into lockdown.The streets around the university in Providence, Rhode Island, were filled with emergency vehicles hours after the shooter opened fire on Saturday at a building where exams were taking place.The violence is the latest in a long line of school attacks in the United States, where attempts to restrict access to firearms face political deadlock.Witness Katie Sun told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper she was studying in a nearby building when she heard gunfire. She ran to her dormitory, leaving all her belongings behind.”It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from… where the classrooms are,” she said.Brown University student Lydell Dyer was working in the school’s gym at the time, according to CNN.”We had to go gather everybody, bring them up to the top floor, turn off the lights, and put down the blinds,” he told the broadcaster, saying he hid silently in the dark with 154 others.The gunman was still at large 10 hours after the shooting, and some 400 officers ranging from FBI agents to campus police swarmed the quaint New England campus.Police released 10 seconds of footage of the suspect walking briskly down a deserted street, seen from behind after opening fire inside a first-floor classroom.Brown University President Christina Paxson confirmed in a letter to community members that all 11 victims were students.”Nine members of our community who were transported to local hospitals are all students. And we lost two students to today’s devastating gun violence,” Paxson said in the letter posted to the school’s website.”We learned from the hospital that six students remain in critical but stable condition. One student is in critical condition, another is considered in stable condition, and one was treated and released.”There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.A shelter order remains in place, the Providence Emergency Management Agency said on social media.Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said city officials “do not feel that it is necessary” for local residents to cancel holiday-related plans over the weekend or throughout the week.”In the hours that have eclipsed since the initial shooting, we’ve received no additional credible information that there is any specific ongoing threat from this individual,” Smiley said.Final exams scheduled for Sunday have been postponed, university officials said.- Emergency alert -Brown, which has a student body of about 11,000, sent an emergency alert at 4:22 pm (2122 GMT) reporting “an active shooter near Barus and Holley Engineering,” which is home to the engineering and physics departments. Two exams had been scheduled at the time.”Lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice,” the Ivy League university said.Law enforcement and first responders swarmed the scene, with local news station WPRI reporting “clothing and blood on the sidewalk.”Authorities urged anyone with information to come forward.”We’re utilizing every resource possible to find this suspect. The shelter in place is still in order and I urge people to take that very seriously. Please do not come to the area,” Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara told a news briefing.He said the gunman was last seen leaving the building and that no weapon had been recovered.US President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting and called the incident a “terrible thing.””All we can do right now is pray for the victims,” he said.The deadliest school shooting in US history took place at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when South Korean student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.

A gunman killed two people and wounded nine others on Saturday at Brown University, plunging the eastern US campus into lockdown as hundreds of police hunted the suspect late into the night.The streets around the university in the state of Rhode Island were filled with emergency vehicles hours after the gunfire at a building where exams were taking place. The shooting is the latest in a long line of school attacks in the United States, where attempts to restrict access to firearms face political deadlock.Witness Katie Sun told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper she was studying in a nearby building when she heard gunfire. She ran to her dorm, leaving all her belongings behind.”It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from… where the classrooms are,” she said.Six hours after the shooting, the gunman was still at large, and some 400 police ranging from FBI agents to campus cops swarmed the quaint New England campus. “I can confirm that there are two individuals who have died this afternoon, and there are another eight in critical status, though stable,” Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference. A ninth person who “received fragments from the shooting” was later taken to the hospital, authorities said.Police released ten seconds of footage of the suspect walking briskly down a deserted street, seen from behind after opening fire inside a first-floor classroom.University officials stressed that the campus was still in lockdown as midnight approached.Ten of the 11 victims were students, Brown University President Christina Paxson said in a late night briefing.”My heart breaks for the students who were looking forward to a holiday break and instead are dealing with another horrifying mass shooting,” Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse posted on X.  – Exams -The shooting took place at the Barus and Holley building, home to the engineering and physics departments, on the campus of the Ivy League university.  Two exams had been scheduled to take place in the building at the time of the shooting, the university said.Law enforcement described the suspect as a man dressed all in black.”We’re utilizing every resource possible to find this suspect. The shelter in place is still in order and I urge people to take that very seriously. Please do not come to the area,” Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said.The gunman was last seen leaving the building, and no weapon had been recovered, authorities said.Brown sent an emergency alert at 4:22 pm (2122 GMT) reporting “an active shooter near Barus and Holley Engineering.””Lock doors, silence phones and stay hidden until further notice,” it said.Law enforcement and first responders swarmed the scene, with local news station WPRI reporting clothing and blood on the sidewalk.The FBI was providing “all capabilities necessary,” Director Kash Patel said on X.Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also responding.US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting.”What a terrible thing it is,” he said. “All we can do right now is pray for the victims.”Brown University in Providence, near Boston, has about 11,000 students.The deadliest school shooting in US history took place at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when South Korean student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.

A United Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Tokyo had to turn back to Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Saturday after an engine failed during takeoff, igniting a brush fire near the runway, officials said.No injuries were reported among the 275 passengers and 15 crew members aboard the wide-bodied jet, which had to make an emergency landing.”Shortly after takeoff, United Flight 803 returned to Washington Dulles and landed safely to address a power loss issue with one of its engines,” the airline said.The engine failed as the 777-200ER departed for Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at around 12:20 pm (1720 GMT) Saturday, sources told AFP. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that a piece of the engine cover “separated and caught fire, sparking a brush fire on the ground.””The fire was extinguished and the flight returned to Dulles, landing safely at about 1:30 pm, when it was checked by airport fire responders,” an airport spokesperson said.According to the official, the affected runway had to be closed for a short time, “but Dulles has multiple runways and other flight operations were not impacted.”The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would investigate the incident.Aircraft manufacturer Boeing referred questions to United Airlines. According to specialist site AirLive, the plane dumped its fuel over the city of Fredericksburg in Virginia, “a critical safety procedure used to reduce the plane’s weight to a safe level before attempting an emergency landing.”According to registration information provided by the site, the 777 in Saturday’s incident was delivered in November 1998 to Continental Airlines, which was later absorbed in a corporate takeover by United Airlines. The plane is equipped with two General Electric engines — now known as GE Aerospace.United Flight 803 took off in a different plane later Saturday, six-and-a-half hours after its original departure time, bound for Haneda.

An aging president faces poor poll numbers and suspicions about his health but insists that America is thriving. Joe Biden? No, it’s Donald Trump.The Republican, back in power for nearly a year, continues to compare himself to his predecessor.Biden would be senile, while Trump brims with energy; the Democrat would have driven the country into bankruptcy, but the Republican presides over an economic “golden age” – so Trump says.At a Pennsylvania rally on Tuesday, Trump uttered his rival’s name more than 20 times and even called him a “sleepy son of a bitch.” Yet for the past few weeks, a strong sense of deja vu has colored the billionaire’s presidency. Some of his statements, in the unabashed style that is his hallmark, echo remarks made by Biden. “America has the best economy in the world,” the Democratic president declared in April 2024, a statement running counter to voters’ perceptions.The US economy deserves “A+++++”, Trump declared in an interview with Politico published on Tuesday.He repeated that prices are falling, even though Americans still complain about the high cost of living. “There will always be a portion of his supporters that are going to be with him regardless. If he says the sky is not blue, then they will agree that the sky is not blue,” said Alex Keena, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. But “that’s not the majority of the American public,” the researcher told AFP. “At the end of the day, people will go out and they will buy things and their experiences are undeniable.”- 31 percent -According to a poll by the University of Chicago for the Associated Press, published Thursday, only 31 percent of Americans are satisfied with Trump’s economic policy.”When will people understand what is happening? When will Polls reflect the Greatness of America at this point in time, and how bad it was just one year ago?” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network. While campaigning, Trump accused Biden of ignoring the struggles of low-income households. Like his predecessor, Trump today is trying to steer some of consumers’ discontent toward big corporations suspected of inflating prices.Like Biden, he is also struggling to generate enthusiasm for his plans to bolster purchasing power. And like the former president, Trump is dogged by questions about his health, though not as intensely as concerns about his rival’s decline — which Trump himself has fueled.- Blue on the hand – By portraying Biden as an old man unfit to govern, Trump is “tapping into a very real frustration” over the aging of America’s political class, Keena noted. But this strategy could backfire on Trump, the oldest president ever elected in the United States.The 79-year-old is now the one whose every public appearance is scrutinized, and who is being attacked on social media. On Thursday, for example, a fake photo showing him with a walker circulated. Was that Trump nodding off during this cabinet meeting, or was he resting his eyes for a moment? And was that bandaged bruise on the back of his hand really the result of countless handshakes, as the White House keeps saying?Biden’s team had furiously denied allegations of declining health, but also increasingly shielded the octogenarian president from public view and journalists’ questions.Trump, for his part, remains much more accessible than his predecessor ever was and frequently engages in lengthy impromptu exchanges with the press. But beware, anyone who dares — as the New York Times recently did — to investigate his work pace and vitality.”I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,'” he wrote on Truth Social. 

One recent day at Miami’s international airport, Andy, age 6, was getting ready to fly to Guatemala. He was anxious, this was no year-end vacation to visit his relatives.Andy was moving to his ancestral country to reunite with his father, recently deported as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive policy to expel undocumented migrants.”They took my brother and I’ve had to take care of the little one,” said Osvaldo, Andy’s uncle who brought him to the airport but was not getting on the plane with him.Andy was making the trip with six other children aged 3 to 15 — three of them US citizens, the others Guatemalans who grew up in Florida. They were all moving to a country where they either had never been, or one which they barely remembered.The sprawling city of Miami on Florida’s east coast is about 70 percent Hispanic, and often called the Gateway to Latin America.Across the United States, cities with large immigrant communities are primary targets of Trump’s virulent anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric.Trump’s administration has deployed heavily armed and masked enforcement agents and onlookers have filmed them in various cities tackling people in the street or dragging them from cars.- ‘I worry about the child’ -Born in the United States, Andy is a US citizen. Until November, he lived with his father Adiner, who had been in Florida for a decade. His mother hasn’t been in his life since the parents separated.One day, when Andy’s father came to pick him up from school, a police officer stopped him. He had neither a visa nor a residency permit.Andy — who wore a backpack and a little cross necklace for the flight to Guatemala City — was happy about being reunited with his father but also “a little nervous” about the trip, said Osvaldo, who did not want his full name published for fear of arrest.”I keep thinking about my brother, about why they nabbed him. And I also worry about the child,” he said.The trip was organized by the Guatemalan-Maya Center, a nonprofit group serving “uprooted children and families” in the Miami area. Mariana Blanco, its director of operations, circulated among the children, checking they had everything needed for the trip.She pointed out Franklin, 3, and his 6-year-old brother Garibaldi, both US citizens. The younger boy wore a Spider Man hoodie, a dinosaur backpack, and an anxious expression.Like Andy, they were travelling to reunite with their deported father, because their mother works long hours in Miami and fears she too will be arrested. – ‘Trampling on children’s rights’ -Two volunteers with the Guatemalan-Maya Center were accompanying the children on the trip.One of them, Diego Serrato, accused the Trump administration of racism and “trampling on children’s rights.” “It’s sad to see worry and fear on their little faces instead of the smiles they should have,” Serrato said.The group also included Mariela, 11, traveling to live with her mother because her father fears arrest; Alexis, 11, who had to stay for a few days with an aunt he’d never met after his father was arrested; and Enrique, 13, about to see his mother for the first time in eight years after his father ended up in an ICE lockup.”No one should go through that, especially not a child,” said Blanco.The children, all of them Mayan, would have to adapt to life in Guatemala, where their families primarily live in impoverished rural areas, Blanco said. Most of the older ones would have to start working because middle school and high school in Guatemala come with expenses that their parents cannot cover, she added. As the group headed towards customs, Andy suddenly turned, hugged his uncle Osvaldo tightly, before rejoining the other children.

As millions of Americans brace for soaring health care costs, President Donald Trump is confronting an open rupture inside his own party that lawmakers fear could haunt Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections.US patients already face among the highest medical bills in the world, spending more than twice as much on average as people in other wealthy nations, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).The latest flashpoint is the year-end expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that help cash-strapped families buy health insurance — a deadline that has laid bare a widening gulf between Trump’s blue-collar coalition and establishment Republicans determined to let the aid lapse.Fiercely opposed to anything resembling support for the ACA — a law nicknamed “Obamacare” for its architect, Democratic former president Barack Obama — Republican leaders insist the subsidies must end on December 31.Trump, whose handling of health care is deeply underwater in public polling, sought to project flexibility in remarks late Thursday, offering to work with Democrats on a long-term fix.But the overture sits uneasily alongside his longstanding opposition to Obamacare and his resistance to extending subsidies — which Republicans argue would further entrench a law they have spent more than a decade trying to dismantle.Tensions burst into the open earlier Thursday when four Republican senators crossed party lines to back an ultimately unsuccessful Democratic bill extending the subsidies for three years.- ‘Under pressure’ -“I hope the message is, ‘We need to do something here,'” Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said, according to The Hill, after voting to advance the Democratic proposal. “We’re all under pressure.”If Congress fails to act in the coming days, insurance costs are expected to spike for roughly 22 million Americans receiving enhanced ACA tax credits.KFF, a health policy research group, projects that they could see their monthly payments more than double, while overall marketplace premiums would rise by an average of 26 percent.The anxiety is spilling into the House, where up to two dozen swing‑district Republicans are openly defying Speaker Mike Johnson by joining Democrats on so-called “discharge petitions” to force votes on reviving the government aid.The rebellion reflects growing fear among frontline lawmakers that allowing premiums to spike on Trump’s watch could hand Democrats a potent campaign weapon.Johnson has made clear he opposes rank-and-file maneuvers to bypass leadership, but moderates warn that rigid party orthodoxy could cost them their seats — and ultimately imperil Trump’s already thin House majority.- Open to talks -Republican leaders, long unable to forge consensus on how America should fund treatment for its sick and infirm, released their own health care funding proposals on Friday, limited to measures they believe have broad support in the party.Slated for a vote next week, the text excludes language extending the expiring Obamacare subsidies, though lawmakers will be allowed a vote on an amendment to keep the aid in place — an effort party leaders expect to fail.Democrats say they’re open to talks on any initiative making health care more affordable but skeptical of Republican resolve.For Trump, the fight carries enormous political risk. Polls show health care as his weakest issue, with his approval — even among Republicans — lagging as voters fault Washington for failing to rein in costs.It is a rare policy arena in which the billionaire’s grip on his party appears to be slipping.Back an extension of a law he once vowed to repeal, or allow premiums to soar in an election year? Either path risks alienating voters, and Republicans across Capitol Hill are signaling they want clear leadership from the president.”House Democrats remain ready, willing and able to sit down with our Republican colleagues anytime, anyplace and anywhere in order to enact a bipartisan agreement,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Friday. “But Republicans continue to pursue a my-way-or-the-highway approach, which has gotten them nowhere this year.”

A United Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Tokyo had to turn back to Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Saturday after an engine failed and a brush fire ignited near the runway, officials said.  No injuries were reported among the 275 passengers and 15 crew members aboard the wide-bodied jet, which had to make an emergency landing after losing power in one of its twin engines and having to dump fuel.”Shortly after takeoff, United Flight 803 returned to Washington Dulles and landed safely to address a power loss issue with one of its engines,” the airline said.United was arranging to put the passengers on a different flight to Haneda scheduled for later Saturday.The engine failed as the 777-200ER departed for Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at around 12:20 pm (1720 GMT) Saturday, sources told AFP. “United flight 803 ignited some brush around the runway as it was departing Dulles Airport. The fire was extinguished and the flight returned to Dulles, landing safely at about 1:30 pm, when it was checked by airport fire responders,” an airport spokesperson said.According to the official, the affected runway had to be closed for a short time, “but Dulles has multiple runways and other flight operations were not impacted.”The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the aircraft had to turn back to Dulles after experiencing an engine failure during departure, and that the agency would investigate.   In a message to AFP, the National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the incident.Aircraft manufacturer Boeing referred questions to United Airlines. According to reports cited by the specialist site AirLive, one of the aircraft’s engines caught fire at the time of takeoff, sparking the flames along the edge of the runway.”Following the incident, the aircraft was observed maneuvering over the Fredericksburg (Virginia) area to dump fuel, a critical safety procedure used to reduce the plane’s weight to a safe level before attempting an emergency landing,” the website said.According to registration information provided by the site, the 777 in Saturday’s incident was delivered in November 1998 to Continental Airlines, which was later absorbed in a corporate takeover by United Airlines. The plane is equipped with two General Electric engines — now known as GE Aerospace.

Two American troops and a civilian interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an alleged member of the Islamic State (IS) group opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said.”We mourn the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria,” US President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform, vowing “very serious retaliation.”Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the attack took place in Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins and once controlled by the IS group — also known as ISIS — during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.The deadly attack had been “an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman,” who was “engaged and killed,” US Central Command said on X.Trump called it “an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them.”Three other wounded US troops were “doing well,” Trump said.The soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counterterrorism operations when the attack occurred, Parnell said, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US–Syrian government patrol”.The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.Trump said Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who visited the White House last month, was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”Syria’s foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani said in a post on X that Damascus “strongly condemns the terrorist attack that targeted a joint Syria-US counterterrorism patrol near Palmyra”.”We extend our condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the American government and people, and wish the wounded a speedy recovery.”- ‘Infiltration’ -A Syrian military official who requested anonymity said the shots were fired “during a meeting between Syrian and American officers” at a Syrian base in Palmyra.A witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said he heard the shots coming from inside the base.However, a Pentagon official speaking on the condition of anonymity told AFP the attack “took place in an area where the Syrian President does not have control.”In an interview on state television, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said there had been “prior warnings from the internal security command to allied forces in the desert region” of a potential IS “infiltration”.”The international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible IS infiltration into consideration,” he said.According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, the meeting came as part of an “American strategy to strengthen its presence and foothold in the Syrian desert”.The official SANA news agency reported that helicopters evacuated the wounded to the Al-Tanf base in southern Syria, where American troops are deployed as part of the Washington-led global coalition against the IS group.Last month, during al-Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the coalition.IS seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during Syria’s civil war, before being territorially defeated in the country five years later.Its fighters still maintain a presence, however, particularly in Syria’s vast desert.US forces are deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at Al-Tanf near the border with Jordan.

Two American troops and a civilian interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an alleged member of the Islamic State (IS) group opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said.”We mourn the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria,” US President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform, vowing “very serious retaliation.”Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the attack took place in Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins and once controlled by the IS group — also known as ISIS — during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.The deadly attack had been “an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman,” who was “engaged and killed,” US Central Command said on X.Trump called it “an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them.”Three other injured US troops were “doing well,” Trump said.The soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, Parnell said, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US–Syrian government patrol.”The deceased troops’ identities would be withheld until after their families were notified, CENTCOM said.The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.Trump said Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who visited the White House last month, was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”- ‘Infiltration’ -A Syrian military official who requested anonymity said that the shots were fired “during a meeting between Syrian and American officers” at a Syrian base in Palmyra.A witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said he heard the shots coming from inside the base.However, a Pentagon official speaking on the condition of anonymity told AFP that the attack “took place in an area where the Syrian President does not have control.”In an interview on state television, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Anwar al-Baba said there had been “prior warnings from the internal security command to allied forces in the desert region” of a potential IS “infiltration”.”The international coalition forces did not take the Syrian warnings of a possible IS infiltration into consideration,” he said.According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, the meeting came as part of an “American strategy to strengthen its presence and foothold in the Syrian desert”.SANA reported that helicopters had evacuated the wounded to the Al-Tanf base in southern Syria, where American troops are deployed as part of the Washington-led global coalition against the IS group.Last month, during al-Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington, Damascus formally joined the coalition.IS seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014 during Syria’s civil war, before being territorially defeated in the country five years later.Its fighters however still maintain a presence, particularly in Syria’s vast desert.US forces are deployed in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled northeast as well as at Al-Tanf near the border with Jordan.

The M23 pressed onwards in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, even as Washington vowed action over its Rwandan backers’ violation of a US-brokered peace deal.Top US diplomat Marco Rubio said Saturday that Rwanda had clearly breached the agreement it signed with the DRC in Washington last week, the latest attempt to end the grinding three-decade-long conflict upending the mineral-rich Congolese east.The deal — hailed by US President Donald Trump as a “miracle” — was inked on December 4. Just says later, the Rwandan-backed M23 seized the key frontier city of Uvira along the border with Burundi, raising fears of the conflict breaking out into a regional war.The M23’s capture of Uvira — a city of several hundred thousand people — allows it to control the land border with Burundi and cut the DRC off from military support from its neighbour.”Rwanda’s actions in eastern DRC are a clear violation of the Washington Accords signed by President Trump, and the United States will take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept,” Secretary of State Rubio wrote on X, without elaborating. Trump has frequently touted the DRC conflict as one of several wars he helped end since returning to the White House.But after seizing Uvira on Wednesday, the M23 has continued marching westwards, taking the Itombwe sector’s administrative centre of Kipupu without resistance on Saturday after the withdrawal of Burundian troops.With Uvira lying across Lake Tanganyika from its economic capital Bujumbura, Burundi had long feared the Congolese city’s fall to the M23, deploying thousands of troops to help the DRC government fight the armed group.Their takeover of Uvira was part of an offensive launched at the beginning of December in South Kivu province.It follows its capture earlier this year of Goma and Bukavu, other major cities in the DRC’s resource-rich east.- ‘Incalculable consequences’ -South of Kipupu, the M23 was also locked in clashes on Saturday with local militia loyal to the Congolese government on the plateaus overlooking Fizi and Baraka, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Uvira. Both towns now face the prospect of the M23 joining forces with its allies in the Twirwaneho militia as the armed group continues its advance through South Kivu province. Several thousand Burundian soldiers were trapped on the plateaus after the M23 took Uvira and were ordered on Wednesday to fall back towards the city of Baraka, according to Burundian military sources. Twirwaneho fighters are harassing the Burundian soldiers as they retreat along the region’s poor mountain roads, with no access to ammunition restocks.The latest armed group’s advances came in the wake of stinging criticism on Friday from the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz.He accused Rwanda of “leading the region toward more instability and toward war.”The Rwandan defence forces have provided materiel, logistics and training support to M23 as well as fighting alongside M23 in DRC with roughly 5,000 to 7,000 troops,” not including possible reinforcements during the latest offensive, Waltz told the UN Security Council.The Rwandan firepower has included surface-to-air missiles, drones and artillery, he added.- ‘Incalculable consequences’ -UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix also warned that the M23’s advance “has revived the spectre of a regional conflagration with incalculable consequences”, and raised the possibility of the Balkanisation of the vast DRC. “Recent developments pose a serious risk of the progressive fragmentation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly its eastern part,” he said.Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of territory, leading to a spiralling humanitarian crisis.More than 200,000 people, most of them civilians, have been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations.Earlier this month, UN experts said Rwanda’s army and the M23 had carried out summary executions and forced mass displacements of people in the region.While denying giving the M23 military support, Rwanda argues it faces an existential threat from the presence across the Congolese border of ethnic Hutu militants with links to the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.