Rwanda, DR Congo sign peace deal in US after rebel sweep

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe (L) as Democratic Republic of the Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner (2nd R) applauds after Rubio hosted a peace agreement between the two nations. [AFP] Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement Friday in Washington to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerrillas -- and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth. The two foreign ministers signed the deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and the African Union in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who acknowledged there was "more work to be done" but said the deal will let people "now have dreams and hopes for a better life." The agreement comes after the M23 rebel group, an ethnic Tutsi force widely linked to Rwanda, sprinted across the long-turbulent and mineral-rich east of the DRC earlier this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma. The deal does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 but calls for Rwanda to end "defensive measures" it has taken. Rwanda has denied directly supporting the M23 rebels but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The agreement calls for the "neutralization" of the FDLR. "The first order of business is to begin implementing the concept of operations for the neutralization of the FDLR, to be accompanied by a lifting of Rwanda's defensive measures," Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said at the ceremony. "This is grounded in the commitment made here for an irreversible and verifiable end to state support for FDLR and associated militias," he said. His Congolese counterpart, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, highlighted the agreement's promises for a respect to sovereignty. "By signing this agreement, we reaffirm a simple truth. Peace is a choice, but also a responsibility to respect international law, to uphold human rights and to protect sovereignty of states," she said. Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-American businessman and father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany tapped by the president as a senior advisor on Africa, said that the agreement was also establishing a joint security coordination body that will help with the return of refugees. Trump takes credit Trump has trumpeted the diplomacy that led to the deal, and publicly complained that he has not received a Nobel Peace Prize. Trump will welcome both foreign ministers to the White House later Friday. Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the United States will be able to secure "a lot of mineral rights from the Congo." The DRC has enormous mineral reserves that include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies, with US rival China now a key player in securing the resources. Trump, in an uncharacteristic expression of modesty, said that he had been unfamiliar with the conflict as he appeared to allude to the horrors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Tutsis, were killed in just 100 days. "I'm a little out of my league on that one because I didn't know too much about it. I knew one thing -- they were going at it for many years with machetes," Trump said. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who shared the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end the DRC's epidemic of sexual violence in war, voiced alarm about the agreement, saying it effectively benefited Rwanda and the United States. The deal "would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimizing the plundering of Congolese natural resources, and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace," he said in a statement ahead of the signing. Both countries have sought favor with the United States. The DRC offered a minerals deal loosely inspired by the Trump administration's minerals agreement with Ukraine. Rwanda has been discussing taking in migrants deported from the United States, a major priority for Trump. Rwanda, one of the most stable countries in Africa, had reached a migration deal with Britain's former Conservative government but the arrangement was killed by the Labour government that took office last year.

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