Trump business for security deal ‘effectively rewards Rwanda for invading, occupying, looting Congo’

Trump business for security deal ‘effectively rewards Rwanda for invading, occupying, looting Congo’

meanwhile let’s stay in DC because over the next few hours President Trump will be back in the Oval Office is organized for a moment with the press as he oversees the signing of a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda which has been brokered by Qatar and the US as we speak the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is said to be involved in a meet and greet with the foreign ministers of both countries what we know is a draft agreement has been agreed by President Disha of the DRC and President Paul Kagami of Rwanda it includes provisions to respect and to end hostilities there’s been a series of long-running conflicts in the eastern DRC an area rich in natural resources and rare earth minerals with two major wars fought since the ’90s and the current conflict reignited in 2022 with Rwanda accused of arming supporting M23 rebel group there which has seized early this year seizing the north and south the capitals of Kivu GMA and Bukavu at the start of this year well the UN reporting that between 900 to 2,000 people were killed during the offensive in GMA alone hundreds of thousands were displaced let’s cross to London let’s bring in a journalist Michaela Rong who’s covered African affairs for more than three decades author of several books on politics in the continent including Rwanda in Do Not Disturb the story of a political murder and an African regime gone mad michaela is with us she’s also the recipient of the James Cameron Prize for journalism for quote combined moral vision and professional integrity welcome back to France 24 michaela and as we await on a day of breaking news from the White House a photo opportunity moment smiles handshakes take us behind the scenes the reality of of what’s going on here what this peace deal means uh well I think everyone is hoping that this peace deal will hold because effectively what people will say is there is no other deal on the table there’s no other game in town um but there are great concerns about whether or not it’s going to have a real impact on events on the ground um as you said uh the that area that part of Congo has been troubled for for decades but the latest iteration has dates back to uh November 2021 when we saw the M23 rebel movement backed by Rwanda gobbling up Congalles territory and they now hold the two provinces of South and North Ku um and this um peace deal there was um uh both sides both countries signed a declaration of uh an agreement on a declaration of principles back in April um and it’s good to know that their foreign minister’s own town because um there was some some worries that uh they might not even turn up one side wouldn’t turn up on the day um there have been problems getting the parties to the table uh but I think uh uh what a lot of people are concerned about is there a lack of detail about this this um this deal you know does it really take us any further it’s supposed to be a business for security deal so America is is acting playing the role of good broker and it is saying if you sign a deal if both countries sign a deal we can guarantee that US companies will go in and they will invest in both countries in the mining sector both countries congo as everyone knows is very very rich in strategic minerals are of enormous importance to the modern world as we try and keep producing new laptops and new electrical vehicles um and and all the other sort of um devices that we all use in our daily lives so there there’s um uh the there there’s there’s this um business for security uh you know you uh on on the Rwanda side Rwanda is under pressure to um uh pull its troops out of out of Congo they said to have up to 7,000 troops there at the moment supporting the M23 it’s been arming and giving strategic advice to the M23 um and Congo is under pressure to stop uh tolerating the presence of the FDLR which is an extremist Rwanda rebel group whose members back in the day took part in the 1994 genocide so we know the broad principles in exchange America says its companies will go and invest in both countries mining sectors um but we haven’t seen the detail and there are all sorts of things that could stop this actually happening
i want to talk about some of those things one thing that strikes me just watching President Trump very very pleased with the the ruling coming through from the Supreme Court today talk about this has been some weak now if we look at the ceasefire with Iran and Israel if we look at Pakistan promoting President Trump this week suggesting they’re putting his name down for a Nobel Peace Prize after what happened between India and Pakistan over Kashmir you can see this as a kind of easy win moment a step towards as many say around him a Nobel Prize prize to have that photo moment and deal with it on the surface of the complexities of Rwanda and the DRC but what you’re saying is beyond that this kind of emperor’s new clothes there’s very little there uh well yes if you talk to people involved in in these negotiations they say um that there’s been an alarming level of substantive detail um uh and I think uh you know that there are many concerns one is um the M23 rebel movement is not going to be in Washington it’s not going to be signing this deal um it may not feel that it is um obliged to respect the terms of this deal obviously Rwanda provides it with key weaponry and uh key strategic advice and and and is backing it to the hilt but um you know as as as everybody knows puppets often cut their own strings and like to go it alone so uh there’s a question of whether or not they will they will play ball um uh they the the M23 has been recruiting followers um since the start of this year when it had these amazing successes in GMA and Bukavu uh success breeds success though lots of young men um who who might normally have joined the Congolese army have joined the M23 instead at the same time we hear that the FDLR this extremist Rwanda rebel group has also been recruiting young men um who object fiercely to the fact that there are Rwanda troops and Rwanda back rebels um uh controlling more and more territory um so both sides have actually recruited new members and yet they’re both now being expected to disarm disengage pull back uh and uh the M23 in particular is going to be asked to um to remove itself from the capitals of uh GMA and Bukabu those are big asks and um uh we were expected to see some movement um you know I had been talking to uh people close to the negotiations who had been saying that by the beginning of J of June they wanted to see Rwanda troops pulling out of eastern Congo and that would be uh a red line and if that didn’t happen then you could forget it there would be no signature of a deal and you could forget about US um business investment in that area US companies going in well that hasn’t happened um uh so a red line has been lost uh it seems to be a congalles concession has been made in that they are still turning up for the um to sign this peace deal so we’re seeing a lot of slippage already uh and that’s going to be a matter of concern
and with Rwanda signing this deal with the foreign minister being there is this Kaggali effectively admitting that it has been army has been supporting the M23 group in the east of DRC um by the very fact that they are there for this peace deal or is that just nowhere near being part of the agreement that they acknowledge their involvement um I if you um were to ask President Paul Kagame uh you know are your troops in in Congo his official line is always um either I don’t know which he said once very confusingly for on CNN but mostly he says absolutely not this is a Congolese problem nothing to do with us we’re not present why do we always get blamed for everything but everyone knows that Rwanda’s inside eastern Congo the the figure cited at the moment is 7,000 troops um and um I think you know as as you said yourself the fact that Rwanda is there signing a deal and the M23 isn’t makes it clear that they in private acknowledge that they are the key player in this conflict you know they are congalles territory and this is one of the points that has been raised by their critics uh Dennis McQue for example the Nobel Peace Prize winner he’s a congalles surgeon who works in Bukavu and he’s been saying you know the trouble with this deal is It rewards Rwanda for invading Congo for occupying Congo and for looting Congo’s minerals it it effectively rewards Rwanda uh and and and you know this is not we should have seen instead Rwanda army officers uh being in the dock uh prosecuted for the war crimes committed on Congalles soil
which gets me on to the point effectively now if we look at um GMA and Bava what’s become of them yeah is this effectively territory that the DRC has resigned to have been lost now to the rebels no I don’t think there’s any sense of resignation on the Congalles part um it’s true that since uh late January these areas have been under the control of the M23 um sorry for that
no no I’m so sorry
i’m still with you carry on Michaela uh I’m sorry um yeah uh at the the um the the M23 um has is now in control of um of GMA it’s in control of Bukavu uh and what it’s been doing is trying to set up administrative body tax bodies um uh organized tax um setting in um you know put in place police administrative um uh uh office uh arrangements um and also it’s been vetting the appointment of local traditional leaders and what we hear is they’ve also been burning documents uh and um burning title deal deeds of congalles people who have been forced to leave their their their farms because the areas in which they were farming before um became so dangerous so these are not the actions of a rebel movement that it is planning to pull out and hand over to the old authorities and can I ask what the difference is this time because we’re seeing a man who’s making the deal you know and you’ve referred to it at the beginning there have been other attempts including in Lwanda at the end of 2024 where Paul Kagami didn’t turn up to actually sign the deal in the end but the man making this deal for the US side we often talk about Steve Wickoff on Gaza Iran Ukraine Mr fix it on foreign affairs tell us about Msad Bulos Trump’s negotiator here who’s worth saying his son is married to Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany uh yes I think um he was a bit of a new player um for many of us i certainly hadn’t heard about him until earlier this year he’s of Lebanese extraction he’s a businessman but I think his appointment to Trump was very much in keeping with what we’ve seen elsewhere in the world with Wick Cole um playing a role in the Ukraine uh Trump likes to ask businessmen to sort out problems that uh in more traditional more traditional administrations would uh um would be asking diplomats and politicians um and strategists to um to uh to to play a role so I think it’s it’s very typical of Trump that he asked to try and sort this out um and I think it it really um gives you a sense of what deal is on the table this is being um presented as a business deal a deal in which it’s win-win for every every player rwanda uh we are told will be uh allowed and encouraged to process Pongal min minerals on its soil but it will be doing so legally instead of doing so illegally as it does at present though will get a lot of um um investment in its um often is very artisal mining sector um and also elsewhere in the Congo not just in the Kus this would also be happening in in Shaba in southern Congo um and also we might be seeing some investments on the border between the two countries uh along the Rusezi River um so the emphasis is on business and the idea is that with business inevitably goes peace and security because businessmen can’t make money unless there’s peace on the ground it’s a very uh transactional arrangement a transactional arrangement to which it’s probably worth you mentioning Michaela and tell us about there’s one already there isn’t there China has involvement in these minds as well what is it that president dished can offer to the US and does that get bogged down in what he’s already offered to the Chinese yes and this is a another key point and one of the the issues that when people are talking about this deal because um something like 80% of congalles mining sector is currently in Chinese hands um uh the the whole sector is really controlled by Chinese companies um so um it’s true that there are small artisal mines and that there are areas which are yet to be explored that where the US could invest but the big current mining um um mining operations tend to be in Chinese hands so the congalles may have to decide whether they ask those uh Chinese investors to leave and hand over some of those concessions to the US or whether it really thinks that it has enough resources to um to attract both China to keep China engaged and also attract these new US investors into the area
can I also briefly ask you about um the rumors that have been swirling around on social media and also in some of the African press as well about the health of Paul Kagami up until recently i think he hadn’t been seen what since the start of June in public this is somebody that I think you’ve suggested in the past he’s often seen in public whether it’s a a school levers do or a handshaking ceremony here and there he’s usually seen and a picture for the press Trumpike if you will um what’s going on there rumors of um ill health going to Germany what’s your take yes um there was uh there was a period of about three weeks in which Paul Kagame who was constantly on public display giving speeches giving interviews he’s very often interviewed or he’s opening a school or he’s visiting a farm um and suddenly he disappeared um and what we were hearing um people like me who follow uh Rwanda closely were hearing from our sources um uh and uh uh diplomats were saying the same thing and it was also um doing the rounds amongst opposition sources was that he had taken ill uh the seizure uh and that he had been medivvaced to Germany for emergency treatment uh and we know that the presidential jet um Kagami likes to use two Gulf Stream jets and that those jets were seen uh taking off from Kaggali um and then one of them was parked um in at Frankfurt airport for for during this strange um moment in which he went AWOL uh and then he returned to Kegali and the jet was seen going back to Kgali um there’s been no comment by the government confirming that he suffered any kind of malaise um in fact they were just saying that you know he’s perfectly well and he was just taking a well-earned rest but as the speculation reached its height um the government did put out um the presidential office put out a photograph of him um uh shaking hands with former Nigerian President Olesen of Asanjo and it was clearly put out to quiet speculation because I think things had reached a fever pitch uh and on Tik Tok and various other social media outlets you could see what seemed to me pretty obviously fabricated AI generated videos um showing him on an IV drip in hospital or a coffin being flown back to Kaggali so speculation was really really getting out of control and I think they felt obliged to quieten things down by publishing that photograph what I think the whole episode did however is um that this you know central control lies in one man’s hands in Rwanda uh uh control is all you know all power is in one man’s hands and the these are Paul Kagami’s hands and when he’s not there to uh on display but also clearly taking key key decisions there’s a sense of an administration that flails around panics and really doesn’t know what to do with itself Michaela great to have you on the program to get behind the story and some context on what’s really going on Michaela Wrong renowned journalist and author on African affairs thank

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a peace agreement in Washington, pledging to end support for armed groups after a deadly conflict that has claimed thousands of lives. President Trump, hosting the nations’ foreign ministers at the White House, hailed the deal as a turning point and celebrated access to mineral wealth. The accord, brokered through Qatar, follows M23’s rapid advances in eastern DRC, though it stops short of addressing their territorial gains. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24′ Gavin Lee welcomes Michela Wrong, renowned Journalist and Non-Fiction Author, specialising in contemporary Africa.
#Congo #Rwanda #Trump

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