Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were to sign an agreement in Washington yesterday to put an end to a conflict in the eastern DRC that has killed thousands, although broad questions loom on what it would mean.
However, the agreement has also come under scrutiny for its vagueness, including on the economic component, with the administration of US President Donald Trump administration eager to compete with China and profit from abundant mineral wealth in the long-turbulent east of the vast DRC.
The M23 rebel group in late 2021 launched a new offensive that it escalated sharply early this year, seizing broad swathes of territory including the key eastern DRC city of Goma.
Photo: AP
The Kinshasa government has long alleged that M23, consisting mostly of ethnic Tutsis, receives military support from Rwanda. These claims are backed by Washington.
Rwanda has denied directly supporting the rebels, but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
The Rwandan and DRC ministers of foreign affairs were to sign the agreement in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Department of State spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
The White House also said Trump would meet the foreign ministers in the Oval Office.
In a joint statement ahead of the signing, the three countries said the agreement would include “respect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities” as well as the disarmament of all “non-state armed groups.”
The statement also spoke of a “regional economic integration framework” and of a future summit in Washington bringing together Trump, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.
On the eve of the signing, news outlet Africa Intelligence reported that the deal asked Rwanda to withdraw its “defensive measures” and for the DRC to end all association with the FDLR.
Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe on X denied the account.
Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, on a visit to Washington in April to jumpstart negotiations on the deal, said that Rwanda should be obliged to withdraw from her country, which has been ravaged by decades of war.
Both countries have sought favor with the US. The DRC — whose enormous mineral reserves include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles — has pitched an agreement to seek US investment, loosely inspired by the Trump administration’s minerals deal with Ukraine.
Rwanda has been discussing taking in migrants deported from the US, a major priority for Trump.
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