US President Donald Trump will on Thursday bring together Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi for a peace signing he is set to present as another diplomatic win, even as violence worsens in eastern DR Congo.
The White House said both leaders will sign an agreement at the recently renamed Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace, months after their foreign ministers met Trump and announced an earlier deal to end the conflict. Trump has openly tied his push for peace to US ambitions to secure access to critical minerals in eastern DR Congo, a region rich in cobalt and other resources used in modern technologies, including electric vehicles.
The meeting comes amid heavy fighting on the ground. The Rwandan-backed M23 group has continued to advance, with the long-running conflict escalating sharply in late January when the rebels seized Goma and Bukavu. “Many houses have been bombed, and there are many dead,” said Rene Chubaka Kalembire, an administrative official in Kaziba, a town under M23 control.
A ceasefire announced after a June agreement brokered with Qatari mediation has held only on paper, with Kinshasa and the M23 repeatedly accusing each other of violating the terms. The latest clashes underline the gulf between the political commitments Trump plans to showcase and the situation faced by residents in the conflict zone.
Trump has claimed credit for ending several wars since returning to office in January and has signalled a desire for the United States to secure minerals that, he said, might otherwise go to China. DR Congo holds most of the world’s cobalt reserves and sizable quantities of copper and other strategic minerals. According to Kinshasa, the new accord will include a peace agreement, a regional economic integration plan, and a “strategic partnership” on natural resources.
Presidential spokeswoman Tina Salama stressed that Congo insisted on securing peace on the ground before moving to economic cooperation. “This isn’t selling out on minerals to the Americans,” she said. “It’s not peace for minerals as has been said.”
Rwanda has tied any end to its “defensive measures” to Kinshasa’s moves to neutralize the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu group with historical links to the 1994 genocide. Kagame, who is also expected to hold a separate meeting with Trump, recently accused Congo of delaying the signing. Congo’s communication minister Patrick Muyaya said continued fighting showed “a lack of seriousness” from Rwanda. “It just proves that Rwanda doesn’t want this,” he said.
Both Kigali and Kinshasa have also held talks with Washington on accepting migrants as Trump intensifies his deportation drive. Rwanda had previously agreed to take in migrants from Britain before the plan was cancelled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.