Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment

Highlights:

• Trump administration aiming to end years of fighting
• Rubio hosts Congolese, Rwandan ministers for signing ceremony
• Trump warns of 'severe penalties' if deal violated

Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year.

The agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by US President Donald Trump's administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.

At a ceremony with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, the two African countries' foreign ministers signed the agreement pledging to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern Congo within 90 days, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

Kinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.

"They were going at it for many years, and with machetes - it is one of the worst, one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen. And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled," Trump said on Friday, ahead of the signing of the deal in Washington.

"We're getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They're so honored to be here. They never thought they'd be coming."

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the agreement a turning point. Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said it must be followed by disengagement.

Trump later met both officials in the Oval Office, where he presented them with letters inviting Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to Washington to sign a package of agreements that Massad Boulos, Trump's senior adviser for Africa, dubbed the "Washington Accord".

Nduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged.

Trump warned of "very severe penalties, financial and otherwise", if the agreement is violated.

Rwanda has sent at least 7,000 soldiers over the border, according to analysts and diplomats, in support of the M23 rebels, who seized eastern Congo's two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier this year.

The gains by M23, the latest cycle in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, sparked fears that a wider war could draw in Congo's neighbours.

ECONOMIC DEALS

Boulos told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace agreement and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.

Rubio said on Friday that heads of state would be "here in Washington in a few weeks to finalize the complete protocol and agreement."

However, the agreement signed on Friday gives Congo and Rwanda three months to launch a framework "to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains".

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that another agreement on the framework would be signed by the heads of state at a separate White House event at an unspecified time.

There is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha - a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 - is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.

The agreement signed on Friday voiced "full support" for the Qatar-hosted talks.

It also says Congo and Rwanda will form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed last year to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months.

Congolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda's former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Congolese negotiators had dropped an earlier demand that Rwandan troops immediately leave eastern Congo, paving the way for the signing ceremony on Friday.

Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.

Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including the FDLR.

"This is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws," said Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who specialises in Africa's Great Lakes region.

Similar formulas have been attempted before, Stearns added, and "it will be up to the US, as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms."

The agreement signed on Friday says Rwanda and Congo will de-risk mineral supply chains and establish value chains "that link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US and US investors."

The terms carry "a strategic message: securing the east also means securing investments," said Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at Congo's Ebuteli research institute.

"It remains to be seen whether this economic logic will suffice" to end the fighting, he added.