PREVIEW
Demands by Washington and Kinshasa for Rwanda to withdraw its troops are the key sticking point
The United States is stepping up the pressure on Kigali and Kinshasa to conclude a security-minerals access deal by the end of June. Both Washington and Kinshasa insist that Rwanda withdraw all its troops from Congo-Kinshasa as a prerequisite.
Troy Fitrell, the top official in the US State Department’s Africa bureau, told an online conference that officials were ‘shooting for a June or July peace agreement’. Technical teams would hold further talks in the coming days, he said on 12 June. Fitrell is due to leave the State Department in mid-July.
President Donald Trump’s senior Africa advisor Massad Fares Boulos wants a peace and security deal signed in June, alongside US minerals-access agreements with both Rwanda and Congo-K (AC Vol 66 No 8, Washington tries a new push in Kinshasa).
The requirement for a Rwandan army exit is at the heart of a draft accord produced by Washington and is a key sticking points to an agreement. Officials in Congo-K President Félix Tshisekedi’s office have accused Rwanda of dragging its feet in negotiations. Tshisekedi’s office says that there will be ‘no compromise’ on a full Rwandan withdrawal of troops and equipment.
A planned meeting in Washington between the two countries’ foreign ministers was shelved in May (AC Dispatches, 6/5/25, Ceasefire, minerals deal and troops out as peace deal takes shape). The Qatari government is hosting its own mediation talks on the conflict, with US support.
A new report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch is likely to amp up the diplomatic pressure on Kigali. Published earlier this month, HRW concludes that M23 executed at least 21 civilians over two days in February in Goma, the main city in Kivu Nord, which the Kigali-backed insurgents had captured in January.
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