White House Brokered DRC-Rwanda “Peace Deal” Exposed as Another Foreign Policy Fraud

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in three eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the State Department staged press conferences with government officials from Kinshasa and Kigali claiming that a solution to the security crisis had been found in exchange for critical resources and the acceptance of deported migrants from the United States

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Thursday August 7, 2025

Geostrategic Analysis

Since coming back into office in Washington, D.C. on January 20, the second nonconsecutive term of President Donald Trump has been marked by boisterous assertions and false declarations related to domestic and international issues.

Whether it is the imposition of tariffs on other states or the announcement of “peace deals” involving internal and regional conflicts taking place internationally, the White House has attempted to misled people in the United States and around the world regarding its purported effectiveness in managing global affairs.

As it relates to foreign policy, Trump said while running for office during 2024 that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours. He also made similar statements related to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Yet, the situations in Palestine and Ukraine have worsened since the beginning of the year. More than 60,000 have been killed in Gaza over the last 22 months. Trump now is sending more offensive weapons to Ukraine including Patriot Missiles.

With specific reference to events in the DRC, the State Department under Marco Rubio supposedly mediated an agreement between the leadership of that central African state and its eastern neighbor of Rwanda. Periodic wars in the Eastern DRC involving the government and Rwanda-backed rebels of the M23 group have taken place for more than a decade.

Earlier attacks by M23 resulted in the collapse of the DRC military forces in North and South Kivu, prompting the withdrawal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeepers from the two provinces. There had already been several efforts to broker a peace deal in Eastern DRC by the President of Angola Joao Lourenco along with regional entities such as the African Union (AU) and the East African Community (EAC).

These attempts failed due to the role of imperialism in the Central and East Africa regions. Historically, these two states, the DRC and Rwanda, have been subjected to massive pressure from the U.S. and its allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Between 1998-2003, the U.S. administrations of President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Jr., funded and coordinated military assaults aimed at taking full control of the DRC government based in Kinshasa. Decades earlier during the 1960s, successive U.S. administrations undermined the independence of the country by overthrowing the administration of the first democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba which led to his kidnapping, detention and brutal execution in January 1961. 

All during the period of 1961-1997, the U.S. and its imperialist allies propped up the regime of Col. Mobutu Sese Seko, plundering the natural resources and opening the state to further military and intelligence penetration. After the fall of Mobuto in 1997 and the ascendancy of former President Laurent Kabila and later his son, Joseph, there are reports that millions died in the midst of interventions through the governments of Rwanda and Uganda. 

Despite its vast resources and land, the DRC remains a severely underdeveloped state. The history of Belgian colonialism and U.S. imperialism inside the country cannot be ignored when assessing the contemporary situation in the DRC and the entire Central and East Africa subregions of the continent. Events in the DRC since Trump came into office illustrates the failure of its foreign policy and continuing threats of imperialist militarism to the AU member-states.

Fighting in Eastern DRC Worsens Since Trump “Peace Deal”

Numerous reports have surfaced during July and August which clearly exposes the failed U.S. foreign policy in the region. Attacks against civilians have escalated in North and South Kivu while violence has resurfaced in Ituri province on the border with Uganda. 

According to an article reprinted from the United Nations News Service, the situation of civilians illustrates clearly that no peace agreement is in effect:

“Hopes for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been shaken by a surge in brutal attacks on civilians by armed groups, including the Rwandan-backed M23 militia, in the country’s troubled eastern region. The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said it had received first-hand accounts indicating that at least 319 civilians were killed by M23 fighters, aided by members of the Rwanda Defense Force, between 9 and 21 July in North Kivu province. Most of the victims, including at least 48 women and 19 children, were local farmers camping in their fields during the planting season.” (https://www.globalissues.org/news/2025/08/06/40545)

The M23 rebel grouping is said to be composed of people from the Tutsi ethnic group which extends throughout several African states including Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC. Colonialism and Imperialism were based upon the dividing and conquering of oppressed peoples in Africa and other targeted geo-political regions of the world. 

Interestingly enough during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 when hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were massacred by the Hutu-dominated government, the U.S. administration of Clinton refused to designate the systematic killings in the country as a “genocide.” In the aftermath of the genocide and the seizure of power by President Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the government collaborated with the U.S. in several imperialist foreign policy initiatives in the DRC. 

Based upon an analysis of this colonial and post-colonial history, there is no precedent for a positive role involving U.S. imperialism in the DRC and its contiguous states. In fact, the destabilization of the Eastern DRC is spreading again into the Ituri province.

The same above-quoted report on the failure of the peace agreement emphasized:

“Meanwhile, other armed groups continue to terrorize civilians across eastern Congo. In July alone, the UN documented deadly attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Coopérative pour le développement du Congo (CODECO) and Raia Mutomboki/Wazalendo militias in Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu. On 27 July, ADF fighters attacked a Christian congregation in Ituri’s Komanda village, killing at least 40 worshippers – including 13 children – and torching homes, shops and vehicles. Earlier in the month the same group killed at least 70 civilians in a single attack on Pikamaibo village. Women and girls are also enduring systematic sexual violence as a weapon of war. On 27 July, eight women were raped by Raia Mutomboki/Wazalendo fighters in South Kivu’s Busolo village.”

These rebel groupings are objectively working in the interests of imperialism. Their views on a way forward for the people of the DRC, Rwanda and other states remains obscured by these continuing violent attacks on civilians and governmental institutions. 

Rwanda and the DRC governments have made a huge strategic blunder by allowing the Trump administration to use their states for imperialist propaganda. These announcements by the State Department are designed to make it appear as if only the imperialists are capable of guaranteeing peace in Africa and other geo-political regions. 

The actual history of U.S.-Africa relations proves the contrary. The resources of the DRC belong to the people of that country. There are enormous critical minerals and metals which the U.S. covets for its own profit-making purposes. Despite the role of the U.S. in the DRC over the last six-and-one-half decades, the existence of poverty and internecine warfare confirms that they cannot bring peace, stability and prosperity to the country.

White House Failures Will Continue Under Trump

This is not the only foreign policy failure of the current administration since January 20. Trump has worsened the situations in Ukraine as well as Palestine where mass dislocation, hunger and deaths are increasing exponentially.

The administration’s tariffs policy is tantamount to acts of war. Placing nations within Africa, Asia and Latin America under such draconian economic measures will not only create greater poverty and depravation in the Global South, but it will increase inflation, joblessness and social dislocation in the U.S. and other imperialist states. 

Consequently, the DRC and Rwanda should not look to the Trump White House to resolve its problems. The AU should condemn the efforts of the U.S. to illegally unload migrants to African states while brokering fake “peace deals” which will only hamper genuine independence and sovereignty on the continent.