(Bloomberg) -kongo Democratic Republic and Rwanda agreed with a peace agreement supported in the US, which was supposed to end the years of deadly conflict and support development in the unstable Eastern Congo region.
Foreign ministers from both countries signed an agreement on Friday in the presence of Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and later met with President Donald Trump in an oval office later during the day.
“Today, violence and destruction ends, and the whole region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity and peace,” Trump told reporters with Rubius, vice president of JD Vance and Foreign Minister Congo Theres Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart, Olivier NDuhungirehee.
The Peace Agreement obliges both countries to stop hostility and stop the support of the armed groups. It also assumes that it allows refugees and displaced people to return home and increase economic integration between countries, with the potential for US investment.
“My administration will continue to cooperate with all parties in this agreement and ensure that the agreements fully take care of and do what is in the agreement,” Trump said.
“Because if someone can’t, bad things happen,” he added, and later mentioned the possibility of “very serious fines, financial and others.”
Accord may end the occupation of the large line of Eastern Congo rich in Rwand M23 Rebel.
M23 states that it protects the rights of ethnic Tutsis and other speakers of the Rwandan language in Congo. Officials here say that M23 and his supporters Rwandan are mainly interested in the minerals of the region, including gold, tin and tantalum, which is used in the most accurate electronics.
Trump said that Rwandan President Paul Kagame and President Congo, Felix TshiseKedi, were invited to Washington in July.
Separate peace interviews between Congo and M23 continue, under the supervision of the Qatar government.
“In the coming weeks, we will lend our full support for Qatar’s efforts” for both parties to reach an agreement, said Rwanda Nduhungirehe.
“The first order of business” will be Congo to “neutralize” the Group of the Hut in the Eastern Congo, known as FDLR, with reference to the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, “said Nduhungirehe.
Why Congo, Rwanda agreed to end three decades of war: Quicktake
Approximately six million people are currently displaced by a conflict in the Eastern Congo, making it one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
“This moment came for a long time,” Kayikwamba said. “It does not change the pain, but it can begin to restore what the conflict has been robbed by many women and children: safety, dignity and feeling of the future.”
According to the main advisor Trump for Africa, Massad Boulos, both countries also work on an economic pact under an agreement that could be signed next month.
Bilateral investment interviews with both countries that invest in their mineral supply chains are also underway, he said.
“Many American companies have shown interest,” Boulos said, adding that the US was already negotiating a critical agreement on minerals with Congo.
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(Update with Trump’s comment in whole.)
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(Tagstotranslate) Democratic Republic of Congo
