Kinshasa, DR Congo – The head of the UN’s refugee agency said on Tuesday the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have agreed to repatriate refugees uprooted by conflict in eastern DRC.

The declaration, by UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi in Kinshasa, came as tensions persist between DRC and Rwanda, despite a US-brokered peace deal they signed in June.

DRC is currently holding peace talks also with the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, which has seized swathes of eastern DRC.

Grandi, speaking to journalists after meeting with DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, said 533 Rwandan refugees who had been living in DR Congo were repatriated to Rwanda over the past two days, under the supervision of his agency.

He urged all parties to respect the principle that the returns of Congolese and Rwandans who had been displaced by violence in eastern DRC must be « voluntary ».

One NGO, Human Rights Watch in June accused the M23 of forcibly expelling more than 1,500 people to Rwanda, and to pressure the UNHCR to help in the operation, which Kigali denies.

Grandi said that « there were aspects to that movement that we don’t want to see repeated, such as the lack of verification of the voluntary nature of returns ».