WASHINGTON\/PARIS\/KINSHASA: 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.
\nThe agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
\nAt a ceremony with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, the two African countries\u2019 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.
\nKinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.
\n\u201cThey were going at it for many years, and with machetes \u2014 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,\u201d Trump said on Friday, ahead of the signing of the deal in Washington.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They\u2019re so honored to be here. They never thought they\u2019d be coming.\u201d
\nRwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the agreement a turning point. Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said it must be followed by disengagement.
\nTrump 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\u2019s senior adviser for Africa, dubbed the \u201cWashington Accord.\u201d
\nNduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged.
\nTrump warned of \u201cvery severe penalties, financial and otherwise,\u201d if the agreement is violated.
\nRwanda 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\u2019s two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier this year.
\nThe 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\u2019s neighbors.<\/p>\n
Economic deals
\nBoulos told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace agreement and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.
\nRubio said on Friday that heads of state would be \u201chere in Washington in a few weeks to finalize the complete protocol and agreement.\u201d
\nHowever, the agreement signed on Friday gives Congo and Rwanda three months to launch a framework \u201cto expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains.\u201d
\nA 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.
\nThere is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha \u2014 a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 \u2014 is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.
\nThe agreement signed on Friday voiced \u201cfull support\u201d for the Qatar-hosted talks.
\nIt 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.
\nCongolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda\u2019s 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.
\nCongo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.
\nRwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo\u2019s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including the FDLR.
\n\u201cThis is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws,\u201d said Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who specializes in Africa\u2019s Great Lakes region.
\nSimilar formulas have been attempted before, Stearns added, and \u201cit will be up to the US, as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms.\u201d
\nThe agreement signed on Friday says Rwanda and Congo will de-risk mineral supply chains and establish value chains \u201cthat link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US and US investors.\u201d
\nThe terms carry \u201ca strategic message: securing the east also means securing investments,\u201d said Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at Congo\u2019s Ebuteli research institute.
\n\u201cIt remains to be seen whether this economic logic will suffice\u201d to end the fighting, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON\/PARIS\/KINSHASA: 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\u2019s administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82983,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82959\/revisions\/82983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}