Trump to Host Congo and Rwanda Leaders for Peace Talks in Persistent Conflict

President Trump will host the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the White House on Thursday to advance a deal meant to end a devastating and persistent war in eastern Congo.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly boasted of his administration’s role in mediating a peace agreement between the two nations. It is part of his campaign to establish himself as a global peacemaker and a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, even as he has publicly derided Congo and other war-torn nations in Africa.
After he hosts President Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda at the White House, the leaders will hold a signing ceremony for the agreement’s next phase at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which the administration has renamed the “Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.”
The president’s victory lap could prove to be premature. On Wednesday, one day before the deal was set to be signed, heavy fighting was reported near the city of Uvira and the Rwandan border.
Deadly conflict in eastern Congo has been unfolding over three decades, since the genocide in Rwanda’s civil war in 1994. Violence has surged and ebbed over the long span, and in recent years, Congolese officials have accused Rwanda of giving material aid to a powerful militia, M23, that was created in 2012 and launched a new round of attacks in Congo in 2021.
M23 holds swaths of eastern Congo and has consolidated its power there this year, creating a parallel government that controls everything from mineral supply chains to garbage collection.
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