Deal without peace: On the U.S. and Congo-Rwanda accord
Trump’s announcement of the accord between the Congo and Rwanda is premature
President Donald Trump counts the crisis in Congo as among the conflicts he has helped resolve. On December 4, he hosted the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Washington for the signing of a formal peace agreement, which endorsed an earlier deal concluded by the Foreign Ministers of both countries. Mr. Trump hailed the accord as a “historic” step towards bringing prosperity to Africa, while Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, who had frequently exchanged insults, praised his mediation. Mr. Trump also promised American investments in the resource-rich Congo if peace holds. On Thursday, he said he would send “our biggest and greatest companies over to the two countries”, adding that “we are going to take some of the rare earth, take out some of the assets and pay … and everybody is going to make a lot of money”. But beyond the grandiosity of the ceremony, the situation remains complex and violent, with fighting continuing to rage in eastern Congo between Congolese forces and the M23 rebels. Under the agreement, Rwanda wants Congo to disarm the Hutu militias operating from its territory, while Congo wants Rwanda to withdraw troops from the east. Ultimately, however, the success of the deal hinges on securing peace between the Congolese government and M23.
The crisis in Congo can be traced back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which about 8,00,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were massacred by ethnic Hutu militias. After the genocidal regime in Kigali fell, thousands of Hutus fled to Congo in the mid-1990s. Rwanda now claims that some of the militias that took part in the genocide continue to operate from Congolese territory. M23, which takes its name from a failed peace agreement signed between a Tutsi-led rebel group and the Congolese government on March 23, 2009, says it is fighting to protect the rights of Congo’s Tutsi ethnic minority. The Congo and UN experts say neighbouring Rwanda, ruled by a Tutsi-led government, is backing M23. In 2012, shortly after its formation, M23 seized much of Goma in eastern Congo, but withdrew when Rwanda came under international pressure. It started another rebellion in 2021, capturing Goma again and expanding its reach. Alongside the U.S.-brokered talks between the Congo and Rwanda, a parallel dialogue between M23 and Kinshasa, facilitated by Qatar, is also under way. Congo wants M23 to withdraw from the eastern regions it controls, but the rebels have shown little interest in doing so. Mr. Trump’s declaration that he brought the war to an end appears premature, given the complexity of the crisis. For peace, the wounds of the genocide must be healed, inter-racial relations between Hutus and Tutsis improved, non-state militias disarmed and ties between Rwanda and the Congo stabilised.