United States President Donald Trump presided over the signing of a peace agreement between the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, and Rwanda, Paul Kagame, in Washington. This agreement coincides with other agreements with African countries so that American companies can access their mining resources, including rare earths and important minerals, as Trump himself confirmed. It is one of eight peace agreements the Republican has credited since his return to the White House earlier this year.
Immediately after he sealed the document, the US President confirmed: “We will see the results very soon.” “It is a great day for Africa, and a great day for the world.”
Despite the president’s optimism, fighting continued in eastern DRC in the preceding days until the agreement was signed. Although one of the clauses requires the withdrawal of Rwandan forces from the Congo, between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan soldiers remain in the country due to the activity of some Hutu militias responsible for the 1994 genocide, according to Kigali. Kinsasa accuses the old state of supporting the rebels and plundering the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s abundant mineral resources.
African countries signed, at the hands of their foreign ministers, a preliminary peace and economic agreement in an agreement in Casablanca last June after mediation by the United States. Last month, the two governments reconvened in Qatar, after months of talks, to sign a historic agreement that puts an end to the conflict whose roots go back to the genocide in Rwanda, three decades ago, which left thousands dead.
M23 rebels have been fighting against the Congolese government in North Kivu province for more than a decade. This militia, which traces its origins to Tutsi armed groups fighting Hutu rebels, controls areas rich in coltan, the essential mineral for making mobile phones and other electronic products. It operates with the support of Rwandan forces, although Kigali rejects the claim that its soldiers are acting in self-defense against incursions by Hutu militias and the Congolese army into the border area.
The confrontations entered a new, more intense phase in an attack in which Congolese rebels took control of one of the main cities in his country: Goma and Bukavu.
Faced with the stagnation of peace processes promoted by Kenya and Angola, the Qatari emirate assumed the role of mediator. As a result of these efforts, a joint declaration was issued in which African countries committed to working to achieve the truce. In parallel with the Qatari operation, Washington launched its own diplomatic efforts, led by White House African Advisor Massad Boulos, a friend of Donald Trump.
In February, the President of Congo offered the United States the possibility of reaching an agreement so that Washington could exploit part of the Central African country’s vast natural resources, especially important minerals such as tantalum, cobalt or lithium, which are essential for the technological sector.
“We’re going to send some of our best and biggest companies to these countries, and we’re going to extract some of our rare earths, and we’re going to extract some of our resources, and we’re going to pay, and the whole world is going to make a lot of money,” Trump declared in his speech last July.
The Trump administration is launching a real campaign to sign cooperation agreements with other countries that will allow them to guarantee access to these minerals and rare earths to avoid their dependence on China, which enjoys a global monopoly. Currently, China maintains control over the exploitation of the majority of minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
While Washington has shown itself open to intensifying its cooperation with Congo, it has maintained a consistent stance toward Rwanda. In February, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Rwandan General James Kabarebe, Minister of Regional Integration, who deemed President Kagame linked to the M23, and the rebel group’s spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka.
Despite peace talks and the start of the June agreement, fighting continued for a long time. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that at least 319 civilians were killed in North Kivu province by “M23 fighters, with the assistance of the Rwandan Defense Forces.”
Trump the “peacemaker”
Trump wanted to use the opportunity to burnish the credentials of those who were supposed to be the world’s great peacemakers, someone who had solved conflicts that no one had been able to solve for decades.
The letter has been sent including the choice of location for the company. After receiving the African representatives in Casablanca, the three proceeded to the official ceremony, which was named this week by the United States Institute of Peace: a nonpartisan agency created by Congress in 1984 to promote world peace.
The entity was a victim of cuts issued by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the entity that initially directed tech millionaire Elon Musk to reduce spending and public employees; The employees of this organization arrived to forcefully enter the building. Trump fired his board, and the majority of his staff was fired this summer. Since then, the institution has been called the Donald J. Trump Peace Institute. According to the State Department, which the agency relies on, the name change aims to honor “the greatest negotiator in our country’s history.” “History will remember President Trump as President of Peace. It is time for our State Department to see it,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media.
“Thank you for putting a certain name on this building… It’s an honor, it’s a great honor,” Trump himself announced during the ceremony last July.
While the president and his administration seek to describe the inter-African agreement as a great achievement, and the Trump-brokered peace processes as indisputable successes, the overall picture is more complex. The fire between Thailand and Cambodia, sponsored by the Republicans, jumped into the air. In Gaza, they continue to kill Palestinians in Israeli attacks. Talks on reaching an agreement between Ukraine and Russia appear to be at a dead end.