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CONGO AND RWANDA TO SIGN SYMBOLIC PEACE DEAL IN WASHINGTON AS
FIGHTING RAGES  
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Emmet Livingstone
December 4, 2025
NPR
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_ Fighting rages on while President Trump declares deal "a glorious
triumph." Congo, one of the poorest countries on the planet also
signed an economic agreement with the United States to share its
mineral wealth including cobalt, copper, and lithium. _

Rwandan backed M23 rebel soldiers in Goma, Eastern DRC, May 2025.,
JOSPIN MWISHA/AFP via Getty Images

 

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Congolese President Felix
Tshisekedi and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame are due to sign a peace deal
in Washington Thursday, in a much-anticipated ceremony at the recently
renamed
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Donald J. Trump Institute for Peace.

The Trump administration is hoping the deal will end decades of
conflict in eastern Congo. But even as the two leaders prepare to put
pen to paper, fighting between Congolese forces and Rwanda-backed M23
rebels continues to rage in eastern Congo. This week saw especially
fierce combat around the town of Kamanyola, on the Rwandan border.

The ceremony is largely symbolic – the agreement was already signed
over the summer and critics still see obstacles to its implementation.

 

 
 
The two African governments formally signed the U.S.-brokered peace
agreement
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on June 27, after they nearly descended into all-out war earlier in
the year. In January, M23 rebels backed by thousands of Rwandan
soldiers captured eastern Congo's two largest cities.President Trump
declared the June deal "a glorious triumph
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and has since claimed to have ended over 30 years of war in the
mineral-rich region.

Under its terms, Rwanda is meant to withdraw its troops and stop
supporting the M23, a rebel group led by Congolese ethnic minority
Tutsi commanders.

Congo is supposed to eradicate a militia known as the Democratic
Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)— which Rwanda's
government views as an existential threat. Ethnic Hutu extremists
founded this militia when they fled to Congo after the 1994 Rwandan
genocide, which killed nearly 800,000 Tutsi civilians.

So far, neither condition has been met. Despite this, both Congolese
and Rwandan leaders have said that they hope to achieve a lasting
peace. "This peace accord will, I hope, bring a real peace, true peace
to our countries," Congolese leader Tshisekedi told supporters
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He added that this means Rwandan troops leaving Congo for good.

In a mark of the conflict's complexity, the U.S.-brokered peace deal
depends on the success of parallel negotiations between Congo's
government and M23 rebels. Yet those talks are stalling.

 

 
 
PEACE DEAL "NOT A MAGIC WAND"

Yolande Makolo, Rwanda's government spokesperson, nonetheless told NPR
that the situation on the ground has improved since June. "The peace
deal is not a magic wand," she said. "Peace comes in steps, and there
have been important steps that have been taken since the signing in
June."

Rwanda denies having deployed troops to eastern Congo or backing the
M23. However, UN investigators have reported the presence of Rwandan
soldiers in eastern Congo since 2022.

Thousands of Rwandan soldiers were present in the region at the
beginning of the year, according to the UN investigators, who also
said that Rwanda commands the M23 rebels.

The U.S. government has also confirmed Rwandan military involvement,
including the deployment of surface-to-air missiles inside Congolese
territory.There is also an economic component to the peace deal.

Congo and Rwanda are meant to cooperate on generating electricity,
developing infrastructure, and on tackling armed groups and smugglers
in eastern Congo's lawless mining sector. But the security conditions
need to be fulfilled before the economic side kicks in, according to
the Congolese government.

U.S. EYES CONGO'S VAST MINERAL WEALTH

Congo is one of the poorest countries on the planet, but it possesses
fabulous mineral wealth. It is the world's top producer of
cobalt—used in rechargeable batteries in electronics and electric
vehicles—and the second-largest producer of copper. It also has
major deposits of lithium, tantalum, and other strategic minerals.

As well as signing the deal with Rwanda on Thursday, Congo will sign
an economic partnership with the U.S. "We really think the United
States will get involved because it's interested in what the DRC has
to offer," Tina Salama, Tshisekedi's spokesperson, said Wednesday
during a press conference in Washington.

There has been significant criticism of the peace deal in Congo
itself, where critics, including opposition politicians and
civil-society organizations see it as having failed to deliver
concrete results. Congo's government, however, says it wants the Trump
administration to pressure the Rwandan army to withdraw.

* Donald Trump
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* Democratic Republic of Congo
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* Rwanda
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* M23
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