Kinshasa, June 8th, 2025 (CPA) – The USA-DRC deal was cited as one of the opportunities for improving the human rights situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an interview on Sunday with the president of the Human Rights Commission, on his working visit to Washington. ‘There are opportunities that we must seize at this time to help improve the human rights situation in the DRC. The USA-DRC deal is one of these opportunities,’ said Paul Nsapu, President of the CNDH-DRC. According to Nsapu, he made this revelation to the majority of US and international human rights organizations, as well as to members of the Donal Trump administration, during meetings and other exchanges on the current situation in the DRC in Washington. During the various meetings with American and international human rights organizations, the President of the CNDH-RDC recalled the various wars of aggression that his country has experienced from 1996 to the present day, citing in particular the war of aggression waged by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), which was supported by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, and other wars of aggression waged by military groups. He also cited the wars of the Rwandan-backed Rally of Congolese for Democracy (RCD), the Ugandan-backed Congo Liberation Movement (MLC), the CNDP and the Rwandan-backed M23-AFC. He argued that the USA-DRC deal, soon to be signed by the two governments, will put an end to the insecurity that is the source of serious human rights violations, with a view to peace, which is a sine qua non of sustainable development for a people long scarred by the horrors of war.
‘The perpetrators of serious human rights violations in the country, particularly in the east, must be brought to trial before national and international courts’, he said, insisting that this was a way of supporting the victims. With regard to the human rights situation from January 2025 to the present day, he said that a number of laws and regulations have been passed to promote and protect human rights, including the law on human rights defenders and the mechanisms for supporting and implementing these laws. He also mentioned Fonarev, in Frivao, and the commitment of the Head of State Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo before United Nations bodies and organizations, in relation to the fight against impunity.