In a rare deal sealed in Montreux, Switzerland, the AFC/M23 rebels and Kinshasa government have agreed to exchange prisoners of war.

According to emerging details from the negotiations between the two sides, the rebels will handover 311 Congolese Soldiers Captured on the frontline while the Congolese government will release 166 rebels.

The prisoner exchange will be conducted within 10 days.

During the negotiations they agreed on the crucial importance of ensuring vital humanitarian aid to the population without hindrance.

Lawrence Kanyuka, the spokesperson for the rebels said that after signing in Switzerland a new ceasefire monitoring mechanism, the Kinshasa regime has, once again, demonstrated its cynicism and flagrant contempt for its own commitments.

“The regime’s allied forces deliberately bombed Kalingi, Rugezi, and their surroundings using combat drones, sowing death and destroying civilian homes,” Kanyuka said in a lengthy statement posted on platform X.

“The Wednesday night atracks illustrate the duplicity of a regime that takes malicious pleasure in signing protocols it has no intention of respecting,” he added.