Trump hails ‘historic’ peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda

The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have signed a peace deal aimed at ending the long-running conflict in the region at a summit hosted by US President Donald Trump in Washington.

However analysts have pointed out that this was just the endorsement of an agreement reached in June that has failed to end the fighting.

Ahead of the summit, there were renewed clashes in resource-rich eastern DR Congo between government forces and rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda.

DR Congo’s army accused its rivals of attempting to “sabotage” the peace process, but the M23 rebels said the army had launched an offensive in breach of a ceasefire.

At the start of the year, the M23 seized large parts of eastern DR Congo in an offensive that saw thousands killed and many more forced from their homes.

DR Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame have frequently exchanged insults in recent years, each accusing the other of starting the conflict.

At the signing ceremony on Thursday, there was no public handshake between the pair, whose body language appeared frosty throughout. But this did little to dampen the US president’s rhetoric.

At the beginning of the event at the newly-renamed Donald J Trump Institute of Peace, Trump said the peace ceremony was a “great day” for Africa and the world, later branding it “historic”.

“I have a lot of confidence in both leaders,” Trump added, with journalists noting he had mispronounced the names of both central African presidents. “We’ll keep these commitments. I know they’re going to keep them and follow through on the agreement and create a much brighter future for the people of their countries.”

Trump got the two countries’ foreign ministers to sign a peace accord in June, hailing it as a “glorious triumph”.

A number of other African leaders also attended the ceremony, including those of Kenya, Angola, Burundi and Togo, as well as the vice-president of Uganda.

At the event, Kagame praised Trump as an “even-handed” leader who is “never taking sides”. Rwanda’s president described Trump’s approach as pragmatic and said that “as a result, we have the clearest and most viable path forward that we have ever had”.

Tshisekedi expressed “deep gratitude and clear hope”, while at the same time saying he hoped Rwanda would “respect the letter and spirit of the deal”.

The foreign ministers of Qatar and the UAE also were in attendance at this signing – which Trump has dubbed the “Washington Accords” – as was US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

However, a day later, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told BBC Newsday he would not commit to withdrawing troops from DR Congo, denying that any are there in the first place.

“There is nowhere in any deal that states that Rwanda should withdraw its troops, because we don’t have any troops in eastern DRC,” he said. The deal says all parties should respect national borders and sovereignty and stop supporting armed groups.

UN experts say Rwanda’s army is in “de facto control of M23 operations”.

Nduhungirehe also told the BBC he questioned Congolese commitment to the deal, saying it’s “something that needs to worry the world”.

“It’s as if what the DRC government has signed with its right hand, it doesn’t believe with its heart”, he said, accusing Kinshasa of daily aerial strikes since first agreeing to the deal in June. DR Congo has recently accused Kigali of similar violations, and the UN said Rwandan troops and M23 militia remained on the ground.

The M23 was not present – it is in talks with DR Congo’s government in a parallel peace process led by Qatar.

The Trump administration spearheaded the talks between DR Congo and Rwanda, hoping that resolving their differences would pave the way for the US to increase investments in the resource-rich region.

At the signing ceremony, Trump said the US would send “some of our biggest and greatest companies over to the two countries.”

“And we’re going to take out the rare earth, take out some of the assets, and pay,” he said. “Everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”

Some analysts are sceptical about whether the deal will lead to lasting peace.

A DR Congo researcher with the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, Bram Verelst, told the BBC that there was “currently no ceasefire in place, and the M23 rebellion continues to expand and consolidate its control”.

“The signing ceremony is unlikely to alter this situation, though there is some small hope it could increase accountability on Congolese and Rwandan leaders to honour their commitments,” he said.

The M23 seized key cities in eastern DR Congo earlier this year, including Goma and Bukavu.

Fresh fighting was reported on Thursday, while on Tuesday, DR Congo army spokesman Gen Sylvain Ekenge said the rebels had launched a fresh offensive on villages in the South Kivu province.

The villages are about 75km (47 miles) from Uvira city, which lies on the border with Burundi and has been the headquarters of the South Kivu regional government since the rebels seized Bukavu.

For its part, the M23 said the DR Congo army had launched an air and ground assault against its positions, and this was done in cahoots with Burundian forces.

Burundi has not commented on the allegation. It has several thousand troops in eastern DR Congo to support the embattled army.

Rwanda says it has adopted “defensive measures” in eastern DR Congo because of the threat posed by the FDLR militia group, which includes fighters who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Kagame insists that the FDLR must be disarmed, while DR Congo demands the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from its territory.

Both of these conditions are included in the peace deal.

However, several deals going back to the 1990s have collapsed after Rwanda accused previous Congolese government of failing to disarm the FDLR, and this remains one of the main stumbling blocks in current efforts to end the conflict.

DR Congo’s government has also demanded that the M23 gives up the territory it has seized, something it has so far refused to do in the Qatar-brokered talks.

Qatar and the US are co-ordinating their mediation efforts. Qatar has strong ties with Rwanda, while the US is seen to be closer to DR Congo.

The US State Department said in 2023 that DR Congo had an estimated $25trn (£21.2trn) in mineral reserves.

This includes cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese and tantalum – key ingredients needed to make the electronic components used in computers, electric vehicles, mobile phones, wind turbines and military hardware.

Prof Jason Stearns, a Canada-based political scientist specialising in the region, told the BBC that the US has been pushing for an economic agreement that could see DR Congo and Rwanda co-operate on hydro-electric power, mining and infrastructure development.

“The logic is that it will provide the peace dividend,” he said.

However, DR Congo has made it clear that while it would sign the agreement, it would not “advance on that deal until Rwandan troops have withdrawn from eastern DR Congo”, Prof Stearns added.

Additional reporting by Farouk Chothia