U.S. President Donald Trump gathered the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda in Washington on Thursday for the signing of a peace deal, despite ongoing conflict in their war-scarred region.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedaffirmed their commitment to an economic integration compact agreed last month, as well as a U.S.-brokered peace accord reached in June.
An agreement on critical minerals was also due to be signed.
This event provided Mr Trump with the latest in a series of “made-for-television” diplomatic victories, a narrative that starkly contrasts with the bloody reality on the ground.
Washington is keen to secure access to Congo’s extensive natural resources and is globally scrambling to counter China’s dominance in critical minerals.
“We’re settling a war that’s been going on for decades,” Trump said. “They spent a lot of time killing each other, and now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands, and taking advantage of the United States of America economically – like every other country does.”
Sitting before a “Delivering Peace” backdrop at a peace institute that his administration unofficially renamed after Trump, the African leaders signed and exchanged documents with the U.S. president.
“Thank you for putting a certain name on that building,” Trump told Secretary of State Marco Rubio, adding that it was a “great honor.”
As the leaders signed, clashes between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and the Congolese army were reported throughout South Kivu province. A spokesperson for M23 accused government troops of bombing several civilian areas.
M23 seized the two largest cities in eastern Congo earlier this year, raising fears of a wider war. Analysts say U.S. diplomacy has paused the escalation of fighting but has failed to resolve core issues.
A White House official said the deal signing “recommits the parties to the peace process” and reflected “months of intensive diplomacy led by President Trump, who made it clear to both the DRC and Rwanda that the status quo was unacceptable.”
Clashes in Congo continue
The Republican U.S. president has been eager to burnish his diplomatic credentials. Since he returned to office in January, Trump has intervened in conflicts from the Middle East to Ukraine and beyond. He’s also presided over splashy deal-signing ceremonies from Kuala Lumpur to Sharm el-Sheikh.
Those efforts have brought mixed results: a long-sought Gaza deal, but also criticism that he should focus on domestic, cost-of-living concerns instead. Voters give Trump low marks on his handling of the economy.
Ahead of the signing on Thursday, the president’s name was added to a sign outside the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, a Congress-founded nonprofit his administration tried to seize control of earlier this year. Who controls the institute is now the subject of a legal battle.
The peace agreement may not change the humanitarian crisis on the ground. Congo’s army and M23 accuse each other of violating existing ceasefire agreements. At a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, Congolese official Patrick Muyaya blamed M23 for recent fighting and said it was “proof that Rwanda doesn’t want peace.”
M23 did not attend the meetings in Washington. It is not bound by the terms of the Congo-Rwanda agreement and is participating in separate, Qatar-mediated talks with Congo.
Denis Mukwege, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for helping Congolese sexual-violence victims, said the deals were driven more by the scramble for minerals than by a genuine effort to end bloodshed.
“For me, it is clear that this is not a peace agreement,” he said in Paris. “The proof: this morning, in my native village, people were burying the dead while a peace agreement was being signed. The M23 continues to seize territory.”
Rwanda denies backing M23. Kigali has said its own forces have acted in self-defense against ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when more than 1 million people were killed. United Nations experts said in July that Rwanda exercises command-and-control over the rebels.
M23 says it is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern Congo. The rebel group’s advances mark the latest episode in ethnic rivalry in Congo’s eastern borderlands with Rwanda, the source of conflict for three decades.
Two devastating wars in the African Great Lakes region between 1996 and 2003 cost millions of lives. The latest cycle of fighting has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.
The origins of the conflict
Congo and neighboring Rwanda have long accused each other of supporting various rival armed groups in eastern Congo, a mineral-rich region and major hub for humanitarian aid.
The conflict in Congo can be traced to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where Hutu militias killed between 500,000 and 1 million ethnic Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus and Twa, Indigenous people.
When Tutsi-led forces fought back, nearly 2 million Hutus crossed into Congo, fearing reprisals. Tensions between Hutus and Tutsis have repeatedly flared in Congo since then.
Rwandan authorities have accused the Hutus who fled of participating in the genocide and alleged that elements of the Congolese army protected them. They have argued that the militias formed by a small fraction of the Hutus are a threat to Rwanda’s Tutsi population.
The M23 group is made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis who failed to integrate into the Congolese army and led a failed insurgency against the Congolese government in 2012. It was then dormant for a decade, until its resurgence in 2022.
M23 claims to defend Tutsi and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination. Critics say it’s a pretext for Rwanda to obtain economic and political influence over eastern Congo.
Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23, which had hundreds of members in 2021. Now, according to the U.N., the group has around 6,500 fighters.
While Rwanda denies that claim, it acknowledged last year that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo, allegedly to safeguard its security. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
A mineral-rich region
Access to Congo’s critical minerals used in electronics has played a central role in the fighting. The country is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a metal essential for lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, smartphones and other devices.
Congo is also a leading supplier of coltan, the mineral used to make tantalum, which is an essential component in fighter jets, laptops and other electronics. The country produced about 40 per cent of the world’s coltan in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Australia, Canada and Brazil are among the other major producers.
Although Rwanda says its involvement in Congo is to protect its territory and punish those connected to the 1994 genocide, its interests are also tied to the valuable minerals.
A team of U.N. experts said in a report in July that Rwanda was benefiting from minerals “fraudulently” exported from areas under the control of the M23 group. Rwanda denied this.
China and the United States also have financial interests in Congolese mines.
Critical minerals are of interest to Trump as Washington looks for ways to circumvent China to acquire rare earth elements. China accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90 per cent of global rare earths processing.
Little of the region’s wealth has trickled down to Congolese citizens, with 60 per cent out of its 100 million residents living below the poverty line. Instead, fighting over natural resources has destabilized the country.
