Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame signed a peace treaty in the presence of US President Donald Trump.Image: keystone
Dec 4, 2025, 9:23 p.mDec 4, 2025, 9:28 p.m
The heads of state of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, signed a peace agreement in the presence of US President Donald Trump. It is intended to end the bloody conflict in resource-rich eastern Congo that has lasted more than 30 years. The signing took place at the Peace Institute in Washington, which had recently been renamed the Donald J. Trump Peace Institute.
Trump announced that the US would sign bilateral agreements on rare earth mining with both countries. The US would send some of its most important companies to these two countries, “and everyone will make a lot of money.”
According to Trump, everyone involved will make a lot of money.Image: keystone
The Congo’s wealth of raw materials has always aroused the desires of both foreign powers and armed groups. It had already been suspected in advance that the peace agreement could also be linked to economic interests of the USA, which used its political weight to bring the presidents from Kigali and Kinshasa to the table – something that mediators from various African communities had failed to achieve.
Praise for Trump, but no handshake
In his speech, Kagame acknowledged that there had been many attempts in the long war, but Trump had now succeeded. President Tshisekedi spoke of the beginning of a new path that would be difficult. “But it is a path on which peace will not just be a wish and a goal, but a turning point.” The two presidents barely glanced at each other during the ceremony and did not shake hands after the signing.
“It is a path on which peace will not just be a wish and a goal, but a turning point.”
Paul Kagame
The signing of the peace agreement builds on a fundamental peace agreement from a few months ago. Among other things, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo undertake to respect each other’s territorial integrity and to refrain from any aggression or support for armed groups.
How experts assess the chances for peace
However, according to experts in the region, it is questionable whether the agreement will actually bring an end to the conflict that has been going on for decades. “Expectations are rather cautious,” said the employee of a German aid organization to the German Press Agency. “It’s a piece of the mosaic.”
The conflict has been going on for decades.Image: keystone
According to experts, more important than the current agreement are negotiations in Doha, which are also attended by representatives of the Rwandan-backed M23 militia, which took the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu in the Kivu provinces at the beginning of the year and set up its own administrative system in the areas it controls. The militia also controls some of the largest coltan mines in the region. (sda/dpa)