Washington — President Trump on Friday celebrated the signing of a U.S.-brokered peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, marking what the Trump administration hopes will be the end of a deadly conflict that has spanned nearly three decades.
The agreement brokered by the Trump administration is an effort to stop the bloodshed in the eastern part of the DRC, where a militia allegedly backed by Rwanda occupies large pieces of land. Rwanda has denied directly backing the rebels. Officials from both countries signed the agreement in Washington this week.
“So we’re here today to celebrate a glorious triumph, and that’s what it is, for the cause of peace,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office. “This is a long time waiting. The signing of a historic peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda. The conflict has continued and it’s been going on for many, many years. It’s been going from, I guess they say 30 years.”
The region has been unstable for decades, and conflict in eastern Congo has led to thousands of deaths recently, and about 6 million deaths over the last three decades, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The conflict has spawned a humanitarian crisis and widespread displacement in eastern DRC.
Mr. Trump said the U.S. will be “putting a lot of pressure” on the countries to honor the agreement.
“I will just say that there are big penalties if they violate,” Mr. Trump said, including financial penalties. But, he added, he thinks they’ll remain in peace.
The agreement allows for U.S. access to the DRC’s deposits of minerals, such as gold, copper and lithium.
Mr. Trump on Friday took credit not just for the DRC-Rwanda agreement, but for his administration’s role in intervening in other conflicts, too.
“This is a tremendous breakthrough,” he said. “In a few short months, we’ve now achieved peace between India and Pakistan, India and Iran, and the DRC and Rwanda, and a couple of others, also.”
Vice President JD Vance also praised the president’s role in the DRC-Rwanda deal.
“If I think about what I know about these two countries, for 30 years, pretty much the entire time that I can remember these two countries being in the news, much of the story has been about them fighting one another, about them killing one another,” Vance said. “And now, we can look forward to a future where my children will look at this moment as the beginning of a new story, a story of prosperity and peace.”
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