U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday hosted the leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda as they signed a peace deal aimed at ending decades of conflict in eastern Congo while opening access to critical minerals for American companies.
Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda signed the accord at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which the State Department had renamed the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace” a day earlier.
Eastern Congo has long been gripped by violence, worsened by the resurgence of M23 rebels since late 2021. Congo accuses Rwanda of backing the group, an allegation Kigali denies.
At the ceremony, Trump also announced bilateral agreements granting U.S. firms entry into the region’s mineral sector. “We’ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest U.S. companies over to the two countries,” he said.
Trump held separate meetings with Tshisekedi and Kagame at the White House earlier in the day. A preliminary peace deal between the two nations’ foreign ministers was signed in Washington in June.