A peace agreement brokered by the White House to stem the bloodshed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where a militia allegedly backed by Rwanda occupies vast swaths of land, will be signed in Washington D.C. on Friday by officials of the two African nations. <\/p>\n
But many remain unconvinced that the accord \u2013 portrayed as a \u201cwonderful treaty\u201d by United States President Donald Trump \u2013 can end the complex and long-running conflict, while the militia itself has yet to commit to laying down its weapons. <\/p>\n
Trump was upbeat about the prospects for peace when teams from Rwanda and the DRC initialed a draft agreement on June 18, while at the same time suggesting that he would not get credit for his role in ending this or other conflicts. <\/p>\n
On June 20, he wrote on <\/strong>Truth Social He added: \u201cI won\u2019t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia\/Ukraine, and Israel\/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that\u2019s all that matters to me!\u201d <\/p>\n Trump touts himself as a \u201cpeacemaker\u201d and has expanded his interest in global conflicts to the brutal war in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. His peace deal could also pave the way for America\u2019s economic interests in the region, as it eyes access to the DRC\u2019s critical minerals. <\/p>\n US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will preside over the signing of the peace agreement by DRC Foreign Minister Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe on Friday. <\/p>\n More than 7,000 people have been killed, and some one million others displaced since January, when the M23 militia waged a fresh offensive against the Congolese army, seizing control of the two largest cities in the country\u2019s east. <\/p>\n There has been increasing reports of summary executions \u2013 even of children \u2013 in occupied areas, where aid groups say they are also witnessing an epidemic of rape and sexual violence. <\/p>\n The crisis in the eastern DRC, which shares a border with Rwanda and harbors large deposits of minerals critical to the production of electronics, is a fusion of complex issues. <\/p>\n In that genocide, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu militias. <\/p>\n Rwanda criticizes the DRC, which faces problems with militia violence, for integrating a proscribed Hutu militia group into its army to fight against the mainly Tutsi M23. <\/p>\n M23, which first emerged in 2012, is one of the most prominent militias battling for control of the DRC\u2019s mineral wealth. The rebel group also claims to defend the interests of the Tutsis and other Congolese minorities of Rwandan origin. <\/p>\n UN experts and much of the international community believe that Rwanda backs M23 and supports the rebels with troops, leaving the nation on the cusp of war with the DRC over this alleged territorial violation. <\/p>\n The Rwandan government has not acknowledged this claim but insists it protects itself against the Hutu militia operating in the DRC, which it describes as an \u201cexistential security threat to Rwanda.\u201d <\/p>\n M23 occupies strategic mining towns in the DRC\u2019s eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. <\/p>\n In a report in December, the UN Group of Experts on the DRC said they found evidence that minerals \u201cwere fraudulently exported to Rwanda\u201d from the DRC \u201cand mixed with Rwandan production.\u201d <\/p>\n Rwandan President Paul Kagame drew outrage last year when he admitted in a public address that Rwanda was a transit point for minerals smuggled from the DRC but insisted his country was not stealing from its neighbor. <\/p>\n Washington\u2019s peace accord contains provisions on \u201crespect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities,\u201d including \u201cdisengagement, disarmament, and conditional integration of non-state armed groups,\u201d according to a joint statement issued by the US, Rwanda and the DRC on June 18. <\/p>\n Other points include \u201cfacilitation of the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as humanitarian access\u201d and the establishment of a \u201cregional economic integration framework\u201d that could attract significant US investments into Rwanda and the DRC. <\/p>\n Asked whether AFC would surrender its arms, Victor Tesongo, a spokesperson for the coalition, said it was \u201cnot there yet\u201d and that it was waiting on developments in Doha. He did not confirm whether airports in the eastern DRC that had been shut by the rebels would reopen for aid supply. <\/p>\n Previous truce agreements have failed to bring lasting peace between M23 and the Congolese armed forces. <\/p>\n In April, the rebels jointly declared a truce after meeting with representatives of the DRC during negotiations led by Qatar. Fighting flared up days after. <\/p>\n Qatar has been facilitating talks after Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o quit his mediation role following months of inability to broker peace. <\/p>\n One of those root causes, he said, was the \u201cunfair distribution\u201d of the DRC\u2019s mineral wealth, which he claimed, \u201cbenefits a small elite and foreign powers, while ordinary Congolese, especially in the east, suffer displacement and misery.\u201d <\/p>\n The DRC is roughly the size of western Europe and is home to more than 100 million people. The Central African nation is also endowed with the world\u2019s largest reserves of cobalt \u2013 used to produce batteries that power cell phones and electric vehicles \u2013 and coltan, which is refined into tantalum and has a variety of applications in phones and other devices. <\/p>\n However, according to the World Bank, \u201cmost people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth,\u201d and the country ranks among the five poorest nations in the world. <\/p>\n Kubelwa said another trigger for the conflict in the DRC was the country\u2019s \u201cweak institutions\u201d and \u201csuppression of dissent.\u201d <\/p>\n The DRC foreign minister\u2019s office said it would comment on the deal after the document is signed. <\/p>\n Congolese human rights activist and Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege has described the deal as \u201cvague\u201d and tilted in Rwanda\u2019s favor. <\/p>\n After details of the draft agreement were announced last week, he posted a statement on X criticizing it for failing to recognize \u201cRwanda\u2019s aggression against the DRC,\u201d which he wrote, \u201csuggests it (the peace accord) benefits the unsanctioned aggressor, who will thus see its past and present crimes whitewashed as \u2018economic cooperation.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n He added: \u201cIn its current state, the emerging agreement would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimizing the plundering of Congolese natural resources, and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace.\u201d <\/p>\n For Kubelwa, \u201ca true and lasting solution must go beyond ceasefires and formal agreements. It must include genuine accountability, regional truth-telling, redistribution of national wealth, reform of governance, and a broad national dialogue that includes all Congolese voices not just elites or foreign allies.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWithout this, peace remains a fragile illusion,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A peace agreement brokered by the White House to stem the bloodshed in the eastern…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}:<\/s> \u201cThis is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World! I won\u2019t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this.\u201d <\/p>\n A complex war<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s contained in the US peace deal?<\/h2>\n
Why US efforts may fail<\/h2>\n
A fragile peace<\/h2>\n