DRC-Rwanda: The way forward for lasting peace in the region (Pierre Matadi)

Kinshasa, April 28^th, 2025 (CPA) – The signing on Friday evening in Washington (USA) of a ‘declaration of principles’ in the conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, under the watchful eye of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has paved the way for lasting peace in Africa’s Great Lakes region. Thérèse Kayikwamba, the Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, who signed the agreement alongside her Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe, found the right words to express this at the end of the meeting, which took place 48 hours after the talks in Doha (Qatar) between Congoleseexperts and M23-AFC delegates. ‘There is a history, families and communities that bind us together. This common heritage calls for maturity, restraint and the wisdom to recognise that peace is not a weakness. It is a strength’, declared Minister Kayikwamba. ‘The urgency of this (peace) initiative is not theoretical, it is human’, reassured the head of Congolese diplomacy. Washington, well documented after the latest tour of the DRC, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda by Massad Boulos, Donald Trump’s senior adviser on Africa, will thus have succeeded in deploying its strategy of using minerals and natural resources to secure the region for investment and development. The discussions in Doha, Qatar (April 23) between Congolese experts and M23-AFC delegates were also part of the same peace process. In a joint document, the two parties agreed to ‘work together to establish an effective ceasefire’, and to sign the draft peace agreement on May2^nd.  The United States of America is opposed to a military solution to the DRC-Rwanda conflict. At a press briefing in Washington on April 17^th, StateDepartment spokeswoman Tammy Bruce stressed ‘the need for a peaceful and sustainable approach to resolving the crisis in this resource-rich region’.