Trump hosts Congo, Rwanda leaders to sign eastern Congo peace deal
U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda on Thursday for a deal-signing aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and facilitating access to the region's critical minerals for the U.S. government and American companies.
The moment provides Trump — who has repeatedly and with a measure of exaggeration boasted of brokering peace in some of the world's most entrenched conflicts — another chance to tout himself as a dealmaker extraordinaire on the global stage and make the case that he's deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. leader hasn't been shy about his desire to receive the honor, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
Trump was welcoming Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, as well as several officials from other African nations traveling to Washington to witness the signing, in the same week he contemptuously derided the war-torn country of Somalia and said he did he did not want immigrants from the East African nation in the U.S.
Lauded by the White House as a “historic” agreement brokered by Trump, the pact between Tshisekedi and Kagame follows monthslong peace efforts by the U.S. and partners, including the African Union and Qatar, and finalizes an earlier deal signed in June.
But the Trump-brokered peace is precarious.
The Central African nation of Congo has been battered by decadeslong fighting with more than 100 armed groups, the most potent being the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The conflict escalated this year, with M23 seizing the region’s main cities of Goma and Bukavu in an unprecedented advance, worsening a humanitarian crisis that was already one of the world’s largest, with millions of people displaced.
Fighting, meanwhile, continued this week in the conflict-battered region with pockets of clashes reported between the rebels and Congolese soldiers, together with their allied forces. Trump, a Republican, has often said that his mediation has ended the conflict, which some people in Congo say isn't true.
Analysts say Thursday's deal also isn't expected to quickly result in peace. A separate peace deal has been signed between Congo and the M23.
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