U.S. President Donald Trump will bring leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to Washington on Thursday to sign agreements aimed at easing conflict in eastern Congo and boosting Western investment in the region’s mineral resources.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi are expected to reaffirm commitments to an economic integration compact agreed last month, alongside a U.S.-brokered peace deal reached in June but not yet implemented.
Analysts say U.S. diplomacy has slowed escalation in eastern Congo but has not addressed the root causes of the conflict.
The M23 rebel group, backed by Rwanda, seized the two largest cities in eastern Congo earlier this year in a rapid offensive that heightened fears of a broader regional war.
Trump has sought to elevate his diplomatic record, with his administration intervening in conflicts from the Middle East to Ukraine since he took office in January.
Those efforts have delivered mixed outcomes, including a deal in Gaza and criticism that he should prioritise domestic discontent over rising living costs.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump’s name was added to a sign outside the United States Institute of Peace, a government-created nonprofit his administration attempted to take control of earlier this year.
The agreement is expected to be signed at the institute.
The deal, however, is unlikely to immediately ease the humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo.
In separate statements on Tuesday, Congo’s army and M23 rebels accused each other of breaching ceasefire agreements renewed last month.
At a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, Congolese official Patrick Muyaya accused M23 of triggering recent clashes and said it was “proof that Rwanda doesn’t want peace.”
M23 is not expected to attend the Washington meeting and is not bound by any Congo-Rwanda agreement.
“The U.S., in particular, has been successful in at least putting a pin in the conflict so it doesn’t continue to escalate,” said Jason Stearns, a regional expert and associate professor at Canada’s Simon Fraser University.
“All they’ve done, really, is put a pin in it, and the core issues have not been resolved. And it doesn’t look like they’re getting much closer to being resolved.”
Rwanda denies supporting M23, saying its forces act in self-defence against ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 genocide. A United Nations expert group reported in July that Rwanda exercises command and control over the rebels.
M23 says it is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsi communities in eastern Congo.
The group’s advance is the latest episode in a decades-long ethnic rivalry in Congo’s eastern borderlands with Rwanda.
Two regional wars between 1996 and 2003 killed millions of people.
The latest cycle of conflict has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands.
A REGION RICH IN MINERALS
The Trump administration has discussed facilitating billions of dollars in Western investment in a region rich in tantalum, tin, tungsten, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
Washington is racing to secure global access to critical minerals as China tightens control over supply chains.
Under the agreement backed by Trump, Congo is expected to crack down on the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group opposed to M23.
Rwanda is expected to withdraw its forces from Congo, though little progress has been recorded since the June signing.
“We hope that, after the signing, we will see improvement on the ground,” said Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe.
Reuters/Oyenike