U.S. President Donald Trump has brokered a peace deal between leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame.
Mr Trump facilitated the signing of a peace agreement in Washington aimed at ending more than three decades of conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo.
The ceremony took place at the Peace Institute, recently renamed the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace.
Mr Trump said the United States would conclude bilateral agreements with both countries on rare earth mining, adding that major U.S. firms would be sent to the region and “everybody’s going to make a lot of money”.
Eastern Congo’s vast deposits of strategic minerals have long fuelled the interests of foreign powers and armed groups.
Observers had speculated that the peace deal would align with U.S. economic priorities, with Washington applying political pressure to bring the presidents of Kinshasa and Kigali together, something African regional mediation efforts had failed to achieve.
Mr Kagame said previous attempts to end the conflict had faltered, but Mr Trump had succeeded where others had not. Mr Tshisekedi tagged the agreement the beginning of a new and difficult path.
The two leaders exchanged a few gestures and did not shake hands.
The accord builds on a preliminary peace framework reached several months ago, committing both countries to respect territorial integrity, halt aggression, and cease support for armed groups.
However, regional analysts say it is unclear whether the agreement will actually end the decades-long conflict.
More important than the deal, they say, are talks in Doha that include representatives of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, which earlier this year seized the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu in the Kivu region and set up its own administration in the controlled territories.
(dpa/NAN)
