Trump to host Rwanda, DRC leaders at White House to sign peace agreement

The White House has announced that President Donald Trump will meet with Rwanda’s and Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) leaders on Thursday.

A “historical peace and economic agreement that Trump] brokered,” according to spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, will be signed by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.

A preliminary peace agreement and economic pact were signed by the two African countries at a White House meeting in June, leading to the signing of the agreement. They met in Qatar in November and agreed to a framework with the ultimate goal of putting an end to years of fighting.

In a conflict that has its roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, M23 rebels have fought the DRC government in North Kivu province for more than ten years. The majority of the ethnic Tutsi who were the target of the Hutu in Rwanda make up the rebels, one of the more than 100 organizations operating in eastern DRC.

In 2021, the group allegedly rallied behind Rwanda. Rwandan forces have acted in self-defense against the DRC’s military and ethnic Hutu fighters in the porous border region, according to Kigali, who has denied working directly with the M23.

The violence, which erupted during an early-2014 offensive that saw the M23 seize two of the DRC’s largest cities, has claimed the lives of countless civilians.

As the negotiations for a truce progressed, fighting has occasionally continued.

At least 319 civilians were killed in North Kivu province by “M23 fighters, aided by members of the Rwanda Defence Force,” according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in July, according to the initial White House agreement.

Details of a final agreement were not immediately known.

The two parties signed two of eight implementation protocols in Doha, Qatar, including one for prisoner exchange and one for ceasefire monitoring.

Other protocols regarding a timeline, details of the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the return of internally displaced people were unresolved.

Other unresolved issues at the time included the restoration of state control, the implementation of economic reforms, the resumption of armed groups, and the elimination of foreign organizations.

Any agreement must ensure the country’s “territorial integrity,” according to a DRC presidential spokesman who spoke to the Associated Press in November.