The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have agreed to a US-brokered peace deal in Washington, raising hopes that years of devastating fighting in eastern DRC can be brought to an end.
“Today, the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity and peace,” US President Donald Trump said at a White House meeting with the foreign ministers of both countries, DRC's Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe.
In a joint statement issued on 18 June, the DRC, Rwanda and the US said the accord would include “respect for territorial integrity and a prohibition of hostilities”.
It would also involve the disarmament of all “non-state armed groups” and the “facilitation of the return of refugees and internally displaced persons”, they added.
Speaking on Thursday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric praised the deal.
“We talk almost every day about…the horrific suffering of civilians, the hunger, the sexual violence, the constant fear, the constant displacement” in eastern DRC, Dujarric said of the conflict.
The eastern DRC has been beset by conflict since the Rwandan genocide, when Hutu militias massacred Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Some of the perpetrators fled across the border to eastern DRC, where ethnic Hutus linked to the genocide formed the armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), in 2000.
There are roughly 100 armed groups vying for control in eastern DRC, including M23, which formed in 2012 and is mostly comprised of ethnic Tutsis.
The M23 rebels — who are thought to receive support from Rwanda, a claim Kigali denies — seized Goma and Bukavu, eastern DRC’s two largest cities, earlier this year.
Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands of others have been displayed in that part of the country in the first half of this year alone, with human rights organisations reporting that widespread atrocities have been committed, including the rape and killing of civilians.
Despite the signing of the US-led peace deal, there are concerns about its implementation.
Speaking to AP this week, the M23 spokesperson Oscar Balinda claimed the agreement did not concern the rebels, who were not party to the negotiations.
As well as aiming to stop the fighting, the peace deal paves the way for the US government and American companies to gain access to critical resources such as cobalt, tin and gold in the mineral-rich region of eastern DRC.
Analysts say the Trump administration’s commitment to ending the conflict might depend on the terms of a separate mineral deal being discussed.
Christian Moleka, a political scientist at the Congolese think tank Dypol, said the peace deal marked a “major turning point” in the conflict, but cautioned that its signing could “in no way eliminate all the issues of the conflict”.
