Nearly a year since Congo and Rwanda initially signed a U.S.-backed peace agreement, Washington\u2019s push to bring peace and prosperity to Africa\u2019s troubled Great Lakes region remains in limbo. If the Trump administration wants to secure the historic Washington Peace Accords, it must lean on its new Congolese allies to uphold their side of the bargain.<\/p>\n
The United States has recently come down hard on Rwanda and its M23 allies\u2014and\u00a0rightfully\u00a0so. Rwanda backed a M23 military\u00a0offensive\u00a0to capture Uvira, South Kivu province\u2019s second biggest city, as\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0was hosting Congolese President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame to finalize the\u00a0Washington Accords\u00a0peace framework late last year. The move was a slight to the administration\u2019s mediation efforts to end the latest three-year iteration of a decades-long conflict and incentivize peace with billions of dollars of U.S.\u00a0investment.<\/p>\n
The United States has responded furiously, taking some of its most\u00a0drastic\u00a0actions against Rwanda in over a decade. Washington slapped\u00a0sanctions\u00a0and\u00a0visa restrictions\u00a0on senior Rwandan officials in early March. In late April, the Treasury Department\u00a0imposed\u00a0sanctions on former Congolese President Joseph Kabila for providing financial and political support to M23, and the State Department is\u00a0rumored\u00a0to have denied Kagame a visa to attend an event at Harvard University. Most notably, the Rwandan army (RDF)\u2014a key institutional and economic pillar in Rwanda\u2014has become only the second U.S.-sanctioned African national army.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Tshisekedi and the Congolese government have gained favor with the Trump administration. After months of negotiations, Congo\u00a0signed\u00a0a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with the United States in late December, which guarantees U.S. firms access to the rich Copperbelt region and will see Congolese critical mineral exports redirected westward toward the Atlantic Ocean via the U.S.-funded Lobito railway. Kinshasa has also aligned itself with the administration\u2019s immigration policies, agreeing to take in U.S. deportees from\u00a0Latin America\u00a0and potentially the\u00a0Middle East.<\/p>\n
One would think that Congo is behaving like a\u00a0model\u00a0peace partner, but this is far from the truth. While M23 has been largely on the defense since December and even\u00a0ceded ground\u00a0in response to U.S. demands, the Congolese army and its partners have only\u00a0increased\u00a0drone\u00a0and ground attacks, sometimes\u00a0killing\u00a0civilians in urban areas. In Qatari-mediated talks with M23, Kinshasa also continues to\u00a0stall\u00a0initial confidence-building measures on spurious technicalities.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, Kinshasa has failed to end its support for nonstate armed groups. Senior Congolese army officials\u00a0sabotaged\u00a0these half-hearted efforts, while the government itself has continued to channel\u00a0millions of dollars\u00a0each month to unruly militias who regularly attack M23. These militias include the notorious Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an extremist Hutu armed group linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that Rwanda regards as a security threat, which Kinshasa has even increased collaboration with recently.<\/p>\n
By not putting pressure on Kinshasa, the Trump administration risks undercutting the incentive structure of its own peace deal and alienating important partners in the wider region, including Congo.<\/p>\n
On the Congolese side, Tshisekedi has little incentive to negotiate in good faith, with M23 or anyone else in Congo, if he thinks he has full U.S. backing. Tshisekedi still views M23 as an illegitimate actor that must be dealt with militarily and still believes he can defeat the group despite repeated battlefield setbacks. U.S. political\u2014and possibly even\u00a0military\u2014support only strengthens this belief, with Tshisekedi\u00a0citing\u00a0U.S. actions as underwriting his maximalist viewpoint.<\/p>\n
On the flip side, Rwanda and M23 have less incentive to participate in a peace process they think is biased, rigged or otherwise unproductive. Kagame has criticized the U.S. approach and said Rwanda will not \u201ccapitulate.\u201d Punitive measures that only target Rwanda also reinforce long-standing autarchic-leaning perceptions in Kigali that the international community is hostile. Without Rwandan buy-in, neither military action by Kinshasa nor diplomatic pressure by the U.S. is likely to displace an entrenched M23.<\/p>\n
Zooming out, the U.S. is indirectly enabling a controversial power grab that risks its long-term partnership with Congo. Tshisekedi has weaponized the continuation of the war to\u00a0justify\u00a0rewriting the constitution to delay elections and\u00a0seek\u00a0a third presidential term. He is using the Washington Accords and threat of U.S. sanctions to justify crackdowns on the opposition by labeling opponents as M23 and Rwandan sympathizers. In response, the opposition has\u00a0criticized\u00a0the Congo-U.S. partnership. This threatens the partnership once\u00a0Tshisekedi\u00a0and his lackeys are no longer in power, which could come any time in a country as unstable as Congo.<\/p>\n
The United States must put more pressure on Congo, beginning with the Washington Accords. The administration should push the Congolese government to immediately cease collaboration with and launch imminent military operations to neutralize the FDLR in accordance with its Washington Accords obligations. The U.S. should consider targeted sanctions on Congolese officials obstructing this campaign and withhold defense cooperation with the Congolese army until Kinshasa complies.<\/p>\n
The Qatari-led negotiations are separate but closely linked with the Washington Accords, and here too the Trump administration will have to work on Tshisekedi. Washington should privately pressure Kinshasa to negotiate in good faith and make concessions on\u00a0crucial\u00a0issues for a feasible Congo-M23 deal, which U.S. officials call the \u201clast piece of the puzzle,\u201d particularly agreeing to some form of short-term M23 transitional control over current M23-controlled territory. The United States should simultaneously help Tshisekedi absorb any resulting domestic political backlash by giving him tangible deliverables through the critical minerals partnership.<\/p>\n
The only way to secure the peace and prosperity the Trump administration seeks is by holding all parties accountable, including its allies in Kinshasa. The U.S.-backed peace deal offers Congo and Rwanda numerous carrots, and the U.S. pressure on Rwanda was a much-needed stick after Kigali flouted the peace deal. But now, Congo is playing spoiler under Washington\u2019s nose. To secure the promise of peace and partnerships built over the last year, U.S. officials must act.<\/p>\n
Nearly a year since Congo and Rwanda initially signed a U.S.-backed peace agreement, Washington\u2019s push…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-voix-des-autres","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",768,504,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF-300x197.jpeg",300,197,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",640,420,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",640,420,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",768,504,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",768,504,false],"newsphere-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",768,504,false],"newsphere-featured":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF.jpeg",768,504,false],"newsphere-medium":["https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PK_DT_TF-720x380.jpeg",720,380,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Team BKBK","author_link":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/?author=1"},"category_info":"La voix des autres<\/a> Les Nouvelles | News<\/a>","tag_info":"Les Nouvelles | News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3455,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453\/revisions\/3455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kikayabinkarubi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}