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Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo are optimistic they can reach a deal with Washington next month to secure US investment in critical minerals alongside support to end a Rwandan-backed rebellion in the country’s east.
The scope of Kinshasa’s negotiations with Washington is hugely ambitious, and combines giving US companies access to lithium, cobalt and coltan deposits in return for investment in infrastructure and mines, with efforts to draw a line under 30 years of conflict in regions bordering Rwanda.
Two people close to the negotiations said an investment deal with the US and separate peace deal with Rwanda were possible “by the end of June”. But potential stumbling blocks remain substantial.
The US hopes to regain a foothold in a mining sector that has been dominated by China since Beijing reached its own multibillion dollar mines-for-infrastructure deal with Kinshasa in 2008.
The DR Congo’s mining minister Kizito Pakabomba told the Financial Times that an agreement with the US would help “diversify our partnerships”, reducing the country’s dependence on China for the exploitation of its vast mineral riches.
A deal could also lay the foundations for co-operation between the DR Congo and its neighbours including Rwanda, in the export and processing of metals.
But in a sign of tensions underlying the talks, DR Congo officials said there could be no question of sanctioning of Rwandan involvement in Congo’s minerals trade until M23 rebels retreated from a swath of territory they have occupied since January, and the Rwandan troops allegedly supporting them withdraw across the border.
Rwanda has long been accused of using security concerns across its border as a smokescreen for the plunder of Congolese resources including coltan used in mobile phones, and gold. Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s government denies supporting the M23 rebels, while claiming that his army is defending itself against hostile forces.
People close to the talks said that Kigali saw the negotiations as an opportunity to legitimise access to Congolese resources and attract US investment to expand its own existing metals processing. But before considering any such prospect, Kinshasa wants first to regain control of territory, including the cities of Goma and Bukavu, that it has lost.
“It would be very difficult for us to accept that particularly because there are still Rwandan troops in the [DR Congo] and there are still M23 troops committing abuses,” said a senior Congolese official who asked not to be named.
Yolande Makolo, Kagame’s spokesperson, said “Rwanda’s defensive measures along” the border, “are necessary as long as threats and the cause of insecurity in the DRC persists”. More important than the date of any peace agreement, she said, was for it to “deal with the root causes and be long-lasting”.
But Makolo added that Rwanda was “optimistic” about the approach the administration of US President Donald Trump was taking.
“Economic collaboration between the countries of the region that leverages our respective strengths, and benefits all our people is what we ourselves have always envisioned for this part of the continent. This is why we are committed to this process,” she said.
A person close to the talks said Massad Boulos, Trump’s Africa envoy and father-in-law to his daughter Tiffany, had called for another round of negotiations in Washington next week to iron out some of the differences.
Boulos, who met Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa and Kagame in Kigali in April, said last week he had provided both parties with the first draft of a peace agreement.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said: “Both participants have committed to work to find peaceful resolutions to the issues driving the conflict in eastern DRC, and to introduce greater transparency to natural resource supply chains. Respect for each country’s territorial integrity is at the centre of the process.”
