Washington Agreement masks complex regional dynamics

DRC, RWANDA PEACE DEAL

- DR SIZO NKALA

EARLIER this year, the DRC President Felix Tshisekedi reached out to US President Donald Trump for security assistance in the form of training and equipment supplies for his forces to enable them to push back the rebel advance in North and South Kivu provinces.

In return, US companies would get exclusive access to the DRC’s abundant reserves of critical minerals such as cobalt, coltan, lithium and tantalum, among others, which are important for the US industrial competitiveness and technological dominance. This overture led to the Trump administration’s active mediation of the conflict involving Rwanda and the DRC, culminating in a peace agreement signed by the two countries on the June 27 in Washington.

Mediated by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the deal seeks to end the deadly conflict in eastern DRC that has been raging for decades and has put the two countries at loggerheads. The UN and the DRC government have claimed that Rwanda has not only been funding the biggest rebel group in eastern DRC, the M23, but also has up to 4 000 soldiers fighting alongside the M23.

While Rwandan President Paul Kagame has denied the allegations, he has described Rwanda’s involvement in the DRC debacle as “defensive measures”. On its part, Rwanda has accused the DRC government of funding and arming the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - a militia group made up of members of the Hutu ethnic group, accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The goal of the FDLR is to topple the Kagame regime, which hounded them out of the country when it took power in 1994. The peace deal comes amid the escalation of the conflict, which has seen the M23 rebels capturing major cities and airports in Congo’s North and South Kivu provinces in recent months. The group is also helping itself to the lucrative critical minerals like cobalt, coltan and lithium found in huge deposits in some of the areas it has captured.