The expected signing of an economic framework by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Rwanda will no longer happen this week, dealing another setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to implement a peace deal and spur Western investment in the region, sources familiar with the matter said.
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized two major cities in eastern DRC in January and February, posing the biggest threat to the government in Kinshasa in two decades.
President Donald Trump is pursuing an ambitious bid to broker peace and draw billions of dollars in Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
Though he says the war is over, Congo’s army and M23 are reinforcing military positions and blaming each other for going back on various agreements.
The DRC and Rwanda — which denies supporting M23, had been expected to initial an agreement known as the regional economic integration framework this week after a final round of negotiations in Washington.
But a Rwandan official said that while the text had been finalised, negotiations concluded without any signature after Kinshasa baulked.
The official and other sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of ongoing diplomacy.
A second source familiar with the matter said the DRC would not sign the economic framework until 90% of Rwandan troops had withdrawn from eastern Congo. The withdrawal is part of a wider peace deal mediated by Washington that the countries signed in June.
"They’re going to have to get Trump on the phone," the source said.
The US is trying to get the process back on track, the Rwandan official said, but the initialling was not expected to take place on Friday.
"The negotiating teams had finalised the text of the REIF agreement but disappointingly, Kinshasa decided at the last minute not to initial it," the Rwandan official said.
"We believe in this agreement and in the approach of the US mediation, and hope that the economic agreement will eventually be signed. The peace process must succeed," the official added.
Congo, Rwanda and the US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"The agreement has been finalised but the Congolese had never made any secret of the fact that they would not sign as long as the Rwandan army remained in their territory. So for us, it is not a surprise," an African diplomat said.
The Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers on June 27 signed a peace deal in Washington, which included a pledge to implement a 2024 agreement that said Rwanda would lift its defensive measures in eastern Congo within 90 days.
Congolese military operations targeting the FDLR, a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe. Reuters
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