Nearly three decades after the conflicts began, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement, which still includes economic agreements. The ceremony, which theoretically puts an end to the war, was held on Thursday (12/4) in the United States.
At the White House, Donald Trump received the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame. The peace agreement, brokered by the United States and Qatar, was already announced in June this year.
It remains unclear whether the agreement will be enough to end the decades-long conflict, which also includes the Congolese rebel group M-23, which in November this year signed a preliminary treaty to establish peace principles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The provisions of the document that was signed this week in the United States of America include the return of families displaced by the war, respect for the territorial integrity of the two countries, an end to hostilities, the release of prisoners, and access to humanitarian aid.
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The forgotten war
Since the 1990s, the two African countries have been engaged in a war that has involved territorial disputes and ethnic issues dating back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
As the massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda ended, members of the Hutu ethnic group – responsible for the genocide – fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, aiming to avoid retaliation from the new government led by Paul Kagame, who were part of the same people targeted by the mass killing spree.
In this context, the M-23 aircraft appeared. Founded in 2012, the organization claims to defend the Tusti minority in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite denying this, the Rwandan government is accused of financing the rebel group, as well as sending military personnel to the neighboring country to fight alongside the organization’s ranks.