For weeks, Félix Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the Congo’s president, talked about his peace deal proposal that will allow the U.S. ruling class access to Congo’s critical high technology materials in exchange for an end to the U.S.-sponsored proxy war with Rwanda and Uganda that has devastated the Eastern Congo regions killing 10 million Congolese people without any international outrage. On June 27, Donald Trump, the president of the U.S. white settler State, flanked by Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe, and Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner—the foreign affair ministers of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—, respectively, hosted “a peace treaty” between DRC and Rwanda.
The strange outcomes, however, are, 1) the foreign U.S. colonial corporations will get the lion’s share of Congo’s wealth, and 2) the U.S. does not need to sponsor Rwanda and Uganda proxy armies to loot DRC, since Tshisekedi’s government will offer the U.S. every critical mineral that the U.S. desires. Rwanda’s regime in Kigali, led by Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame, is more than satisfied with this outcome: the peace deal does not treat Kagame’s government as the aggressor in Congo, but rather as an economic partner with unrestricted access to Congo’s minerals in East Congo. All UN reports that expose Kagame’s, as well as president of Uganda Yoweri Museveni’s undisputable cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocides in Congo are swept under the rug by this Trump deal.
Majority in Congo are opposed to anti-Congo “peace deal”
The peace deal says nothing in terms of justice for all the Congolese victims of 30 years of U.S.-sponsored proxy wars, and it does not have the withdrawal schedule of the Rwanda army and its proxy armed groups from DRC. Dr. Denis Mukwege, a human rights advocate in Congo and Nobel Peace Prize laureate reacted vividly to Trump’s peace deal. According to chimpreport.com, Dr. Mukwege “expressed strong criticism of the Washington peace treaty between DRC and Rwanda, calling it a ‘scandalous surrender of sovereignty’ that legitimizes foreign occupation, exploitation and decades of impunity.” Dr. Mukwege argued in a statement that the deal “would amount to granting a reward for aggression, legitimizing the plundering of Congolese natural resources and forcing the victim to alienate their national heritage by sacrificing justice in order to ensure a precarious and fragile peace.”
A jubilant Trump said, “We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They’re so honored to be here. They never thought they’d be coming.” And the Rwandan foreign affairs minister was jubilant, too.
Tshisekedi motivated by possibilities to modify constitution to stay in power
Tshisekedi is pursuing two objectives with this deal. One is to reduce or remove Rwanda’s influence over his government rule. This trajectory began with the fracture of his alliance with Joseph Kabila, who was instrumental to Tshisekedi’s rise to power. In 2018’s controversial elections, then-president Joseph Kabila declared through the Independent National Electoral Commission, led by Corneille Nangaa Yubeluo declared that Tshisekedi was the winner when it was believed that Martin Fayulu was the winner. Nangaa himself is a loyal collaborator of Joseph Kabila, and he has been the leading face of Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), the political arm of the March 23 Movement (M23). M23, a military detachment of the Rwandan army in Congo, has occupied the eastern Congo city of Goma, a city with two million inhabitants, and has been committing war crimes there.
The second objective of Tshisekedi’s deal is to have enough political power to modify the constitution, which will pave the way for extending his rule beyond 2028. Congo’s constitution currently prohibits this by restricting the presidency to two terms. Tshisekedi wrongly believes that if he can secure the Trump peace deal for Congo’s critical high-tech minerals, he will have the power to modify Congo’s constitution and run for a third presidential term.
U.S. vs China control of Africa’s critical high-tech mineral resources?
It is not just the minerals that are critical; our labor is critical, too. The U.S. seeks to control, at the expense of China, the strategic wealth in the Congo basin, with DRC as the main focus. The minerals that they seek to control are coltan, gold, tin and tungsten in Eastern Congo and cobalt and copper in South-Eastern Congo. The Chinese are currently the largest miners of Congo’s cobalt. This is what the U.S. is attempting to change.
In a December 2, 2014 article, pubs.acs.org gave an insight into the range of minerals involved and their practical use: “Recent legislation has focused attention on the supply chains of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG), specifically those originating from the eastern part of DRC. The unique properties of these so-called ‘conflict minerals’ lead to their use in many products, ranging from medical devices to industrial cutting tools. This paper calculates per product use of 3TG in several information, communication and technology (ICT) products such as desktops, servers, laptops, smart phones and tablets.”
Reparations, social justice must be starting point between the Congo and the U.S.
For most of the people in Congo, this deal is scandalous as it is a surrender of Congo’s wealth to the U.S. and its allies. How did we get into this situation? Through the U.S.-sponsored 30 years of brutal proxy wars in Congo, mostly against the people. The U.S. is responsible for the overthrow of the only democratically elected anti-colonial government in Congo under Patrice Lumumba. The people and the Congo have never recovered from the assassination of Lumumba and his comrades.
The U.S. is also responsible for the overthrow of Mobutu, their own puppet that they imposed on us for 32 years, and his replacement with Laurent Desire Kabila and Joseph Kabila—both controlled from Kigali on behalf of the U.S. government. Trump is not qualified to lead any peace deal in the Congo’s basin. To be credible, an international tribunal on reparations and social justice is required for the Congo, under the leadership of the African working class.
No Surrender! No Compromise!
Build An African Tribunal On Reparations and Social Justice in Congo!
