Congo and Rwanda sign US-mediated peace deal aimed at ending decades of bloody conflict

(AP) — The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have signed a peace deal facilitated by the United States to help end decades of deadly fighting in eastern Congo. It will also help the US government and American companies gain access to critical minerals in the region.

“Today, the violence and destruction come to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity, and peace,” President Donald Trump told the foreign ministers of the two countries at a White House meeting on Friday.

The agreement was signed earlier at the State Department's Treaty Room beneath a portrait of Colin Powell, the first African American to hold the job of top US diplomat. There, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it “an important moment after 30 years of war.”

The Central African nation of Congo has been wracked by conflict with more than 100 armed groups, the most potent backed by Rwanda, that have killed millions since the 1990s.

While the deal is seen as a turning point, analysts don’t believe it will quickly end the fighting because the most prominent armed group says it does not apply to it.

Many Congolese see it mainly as an opportunity for the US to acquire critical minerals needed for much of the world’s technology after their government reached out to Trump for support in fighting the rebels.

Trump has pushed to gain access to such minerals at a time when the United States and China are actively competing for influence in Africa.

Congo’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner invoked the millions of victims of the conflict in signing the agreement with Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe.

Both expressed optimism but stressed significant work still to do to end the fighting.

They, along with Rubio, lauded the support of the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar in facilitating the agreement, which Doha has been working on for months at the request of the U.S. and others.

The agreement has provisions on territorial integrity, prohibition of hostilities and the disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration of non-state armed groups.

Asked in the Oval Office about violations of the agreement, Trump said he didn't think that would happen but also warned of “very severe penalties, financial and otherwise,” if it did.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group is the most prominent armed group in the conflict, and its major advance early this year left bodies on the streets. With 7 million people displaced in Congo, the United Nations has called it “one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.”

Congo hopes the US will provide it with the security support needed to fight the rebels and possibly get them to withdraw from the key cities of Goma and Bukavu, and from the entire region where Rwanda is estimated to have up to 4,000 troops.

Rwanda has said that it's defending its territorial interests and not supporting M23.

M23 rebels have suggested that the agreement won’t be binding for them. The rebel group hasn't been directly involved in the planned peace deal, although it has been part of other ongoing peace talks.

Corneille Nangaa, leader of Congo River Alliance - known by its French acronym AFC - which includes M23, told The Associated Press in March that direct peace talks with Congo can only be held if the country acknowledges their grievances and that “anything regarding us which are done without us, it’s against us.”

The conflict can be traced to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where Hutu militias killed between 500,000 and 1 million ethnic Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus and Twa, Indigenous people. When Tutsi-led forces fought back, nearly 2 million Hutus crossed into Congo, fearing reprisals.

Rwandan authorities have accused the Hutus who fled of participating in the genocide and alleged that elements of the Congolese army protected them. They have argued that the militias formed by a small fraction of the Hutus are a threat to Rwanda’s Tutsi population.

Since then, the ongoing conflict in east Congo has killed 6 million people, in attacks, famines and unchecked disease outbreaks stemming from the fighting.

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