U.S. President Donald Trump will host Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Tshisekedi on Thursday to sign a new peace agreement aimed at ending decades of conflict in eastern DRC, despite heavy fighting that continued overnight in the region. The ceremony is scheduled to take place at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace – the former U.S. Institute of Peace, which the administration closed earlier this year as part of broad federal spending cuts. White House officials described the accord as a “historic breakthrough” that includes a ceasefire framework, regional economic integration, and a U.S.–DRC “strategic partnership” on critical minerals.
The Democratic Republic of Congo holds roughly 70 percent of the world’s cobalt supply as well as vast reserves of copper, coltan, and other minerals essential for electric-vehicle batteries and high-tech devices.
Intense clashes reported Wednesday
Just hours before the leaders were due to arrive in Washington, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and Congolese government forces traded artillery and small-arms fire around the towns of Kaziba and Walungu in South Kivu province. “Many houses were bombed and there are numerous dead,” Rene Chubaka Kalembire, a local administrator in M23-controlled Kaziba, told reporters by phone. The latest surge in violence follows the collapse of a Qatar-mediated ceasefire signed in June by the two countries’ foreign ministers – also in the presence of President Trump.
Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violations. Second agreement in five monthsThursday’s pact will be the second Trump-brokered deal between Kinshasa and Kigali in less than six months. The president has repeatedly claimed he has “ended more wars than any president in history” since returning to office in January 2025, listing the DRC conflict alongside several others. DRC presidential spokeswoman Tina Salama insisted the agreement was not a trade of peace for mineral access.
“This is not selling our minerals to the Americans,” Salama told journalists in Washington. “It is not ‘peace for minerals,’ as some have claimed. Real peace on the ground remains our absolute precondition before any economic phase begins.”
Rwanda ties withdrawal to FDLR threat
Rwanda, which denies direct military involvement but is widely accused by the United Nations and Western governments of backing M23, has conditioned any withdrawal on the neutralization of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia with roots in the 1994 genocide. President Kagame, who is also scheduled for a separate bilateral meeting with Trump, last week accused Kinshasa of deliberately delaying the agreement. DRC Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya countered that continued Rwandan support for M23 “proves Rwanda does not want peace.”
Migration deals on the tableU.S. officials confirmed that both countries have held parallel talks with the administration on accepting deported migrants as part of President Trump’s mass-deportation program. Rwanda had previously agreed to receive migrants under a now-canceled British scheme.
The signing ceremony is set to take place today.