(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/reuters/2012-12-01t135603z_923952978_gm1e8c11mxz01_rtrmadp_3_sudan-southsudan.photoblog600.jpg)Goran Tomasevic / ReutersA M23 fighter walks with his rifle as he and other rebels withdraw from Goma, Congo, on Saturday.By Pascal Fletcher, ReutersGOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo -- Rebel fighters, singing and brandishing weapons, pulled out of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern border city of Goma on Saturday, raising hopes regional peace efforts could advance negotiations to end the insurgency.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (http://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) The rebel withdrawal from Goma on Lake Kivu, a strategic hub in the country's war-scarred eastern borderlands, was agreed in a deal brokered by presidents of the Great Lakes states under Uganda's leadership a week ago.
Goma's fall on November 20 to the Tutsi-led M23 rebel movement which routed United Nations-backed government forces triggered a diplomatic scramble to prevent a wider escalation of the eight-month-old rebellion in the conflict-prone region.
The rebels had said they would fight to topple Congo's President Joseph Kabila and march on the capital Kinshasa, 1,000 miles to the west. U.N. experts accuse Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the revolt, a charge both strongly deny.
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