Trump administration officials on Friday oversaw the signing of a U.S.-brokered peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, a deal President Donald Trump said would end “one of the worst wars anyone’s ever seen.”
He hosted the top diplomats from both countries in the Oval Office, where he declared “today the violence and destruction comes to an end.”
“The entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity and peace,” he said. “That’s been a long time waiting.”
The official signing of the peace agreement took place earlier Friday at the State Department and was witnessed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senior Adviser for Africa Massad Boulos, whom Trump has largely credited with bringing about the deal.
“This is an important moment after 30 years of war. President Trump is a president of peace. He really does want peace. He prioritizes it above all else,” Rubio said at the event.
The president has previously touted the agreement on his online platform while lamenting that he wouldn’t receive enough accolades for his role in bringing it about.
“This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World! I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this,” he posted last week. “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!”
Members of the Trump administration have praised the deal as an important step toward bringing an end to a decadeslong conflict in Central Africa, which stems back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, violence perpetrated by dozens of armed groups in the eastern DRC has cost more than 6 million lives since 1996.
The conflict surged in 2022, when Rwandan military forces entered the DRC to provide support to the March 23 Movement, a rebel group also known as M23, and its insurgency against the Congolese military.
The terms of the peace deal signed on Friday call for both countries to end support for non-state groups, the return of refugees, and the creation of a joint security coordination mechanism aimed at resolving disputes.
But Trump has signaled there’s more to gain from the agreement than just putting a stop to the fighting between the DRC and Rwanda.
On Friday, he said the U.S. would also be getting “a lot of mineral rights” from the DRC as part of the arrangement.
The deal paves for the way for American investment in the mineral-rich region by directing both countries to launch an economic framework aimed at expanding “foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains and introduce greater transparency.”
Critics of the agreement say it could lead the way to resource exploitation and overlooks critical areas of discord.
“It risks reducing peace to a transactional exchange. Minerals are only one driver of conflict,” said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, a senior associate with the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The United States and its allies must support a robust legal and reconciliation framework, including reparations for victims, disarmament and reintegration programs, and accountability for war crimes,” he said.
