Foreign pool report #1 - backgrounder

Hello all!

I will be your foreign pooler for the campus-based activities today as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda take part in the ceremonial signing of a US-brokered peace and economic agreement.

PRINCIPALS

DRC - President Félix Tshisekedi (CHI-SIC-AY-DEE)

Rwanda - President Paul Kagame (KA-GAR-MAY)

The deal was initially signed on June 27th 2025 at the State Department by the foreign ministers of both countries and was overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Today’s signing is being framed as a final accord to tie together previous commitments and bind all parties involved to one enforceable agreement.

There have been 2 concurrent peace talks and agreements being negotiated between different at-odds factions. The US oversaw a deal between the DRC and Rwanda (today’s signing), and Qatar has aided the US in brokering a deal between the DRC government and the M23 rebel group which is widely regarded as being back by Rwanda - a claim Rwanda denies. A Congolese official says these two deals are intertwined.

CONTEXT

The decades of conflict in DRC are very complex and have resulted in the deaths of around 6 million people, the displacement of 7 million and 21 million in need of aid. The fighting comprises a web of different warring factions including the Congolese army, rebel groups, smaller local militias as well as foreign forces. For brevity, I will focus on the main actors; the Congolese army, Rwanda and the M23 rebel group.

The current fighting in eastern DRC has its roots in the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, when violence between ethnic groups erupted. During the Rwandan genocide, Hutu extremists (ethnic Hutus accounted for about 85% of the Rwandan population) killed almost 1 million people - mostly people belonging to the Tutsi minority ethnic group (which made up around 14% of the ethnic population) and moderate Hutus. In the wake of the genocide - and indeed during it - almost 2 million Hutus crossed the border into neighbouring DRC and settled in camps situated in North and South Kivu provinces. Among that large number was a small number of extremists who started militias.

After years of violence and power struggles (you can read an in-depth but digestible history of the conflict here ), an ethnic Tutsi rebel group called the March 23 Movement - or simply M23 - came to prominence in 2012 - forged from a mutiny of ex-militia members who had merged into the DRC government’s army. Within months, they had become such a significant force that UN troops were sent to DRC to aid the government’s army fight the rebel group. As mentioned before, it is widely believed and accepted that the rebel group has been backed by Rwanda’s government, but Kigali (the capital of Rwanda) denies backing the group.

The UN-backed efforts led to the defeat of M23 and a ceasefire deal was agreed to in 2013. In recent years however, the group reorganised and there has been a resurgence in attacks and violence. Things escalated dramatically in early 2025 when M23 took control of Goma - the largest city eastern DRC - and expanded across vast areas in North and South Kivu provinces. Rwandan troops are in the ground in eastern DRC; between 3-4,000 of them. Kigali points to the ongoing activity of some of the Hutu factions responsible for the 1994 genocide as justification for the presence of Rwandan troops. But Kinshasa says that Rwanda is backing the rebels and engaging in the theft of unprecedented levels of DR Congo’s natural mineral resources - a claim echoed by the UN.

THE PEACE/ECONOMIC DEAL

Seeking an end to the conflict, the DRC approached the US and pitched a minerals-for-security style deal. Along with Qatar, the US engaged in mediation efforts between the parties.

The deal calls for/includes:

• Rwanda to withdraw its troops from eastern DRC
• A provision which would end support for M23 and FDLR (a Rwandan faction active in eastern DRC) rebel groups

• DRC and Rwanda to establish an ‘economic integration framework’ within 90 days which provides a shared economic incentive for last peace. The idea here is to expand foreign trade and investment in the region centred on critical minerals (namely coltan, cobalt and lithium). The framework looks to link up DRC and Rwanda with the US government and US private investment to increase global competition for minerals and secure stability.
• The creation of a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days (which would oversee the withdrawal of Rwandan troops and the disbandment of FDLR and M23)
• Humanitarian provisions - the allowance of people to safely return to their places of origin, allowance of aid and aid agencies into the area as well as allowing oversight by a ‘Joint Oversight Committee’ (with representatives from the US, Qatar and the African Union)

At a press conference on Wednesday, Congolese officials were asked whether the US has requested DRC to accept non-Congolese nationals deported from the US as part of this deal. Initially, one official said that so far the US had NOT asked DRC to accept deportees but that they were expecting President Trump to potentially raise the notion during the bilateral today. When asked to clarify whether that would include non-Congolese nationals, the official said ‘we are not sure, we don’t know what’s going to be on the table’.

The peace and economic deal brokered by the US may have been signed in the summer, but implementation has been anything but swift. Violence continues, and both sides continue to accuse the other of breaking the terms of the deal or not truly seeking peace. Key parts of the deal have seen no movement, including the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from eastern DRC. One Congolese official told me ‘only once mutual trust is re-established can we implement greater economic integration which will benefit everyone in the Great Lakes region.’

That’s it for now!

Let me know if you need anything,

Fraser

Fraser Jackson

Washington / White House Correspondent

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