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

The meeting sought to build on earlier agreements to end the fighting in eastern DRC, which remained in place throughout the negotiations.

United States President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday, the White House has announced.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will sign “the historic peace and economic agreement that (Trump) brokered,” spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt told reporters.

The event follows the signing of an initial peace agreement and economic agreement by the foreign ministers of the two African countries at a White House event in June. After months of negotiations, they met in Qatar in November and signed a framework with the ultimate goal of ending years of fighting.

M23 rebels have fought the DRC government in North Kivu province for more than a decade, with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Of more than 100 groups operating in eastern DRC, the rebels are composed primarily of ethnic Tutsi, who were targeted by Hutu in Rwanda.

The group reemerged in 2021 with the reported support of Rwanda. Kigali has denied working directly with the M23, instead saying that Rwandan forces acted in self-defense against DRC forces and ethnic Hutu militias in the open border area.

Thousands of people have been killed, many of them civilians, in the violence, which escalated during an offensive earlier this year in which the M23 captured the DRC’s two largest cities.

Sporadic fighting continues as ceasefire talks proceed.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that at least 319 civilians were killed in North Kivu province in July by “M23 fighters assisted by members of the Rwanda Defense Forces”, shortly after the White House’s initial agreement.

Details of the final agreement were not immediately clear.

In Doha, Qatar, the two sides signed two of the eight implementing protocols, including a provision on ceasefire monitoring and a provision on prisoner exchanges.

Timelines, details of humanitarian aid delivery and other protocols related to the return of displaced people have not yet been agreed.

Other unresolved issues at the time included restoring state authority, implementing economic reforms, reintegration of armed groups into the government, and elimination of foreign groups.

A spokesman for the DRC’s president told the Associated Press news agency in November that any agreement must assure the country’s “territorial integrity.”

Despite long-running questions, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have helped end one of the many conflicts since taking office in January.