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United States President Donald Trump has hosted the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to sign a peace deal that could end the conflict between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Although the violence on the ground has not stopped, Trump hailed the US-brokered deal on Thursday as a new chapter for the region.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cIt is an amazing day: great day for Africa, great day for the world and for these two countries,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd they have so much to be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n The agreement was originally reached in June. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame had met in Qatar in March, initiating the talks that led to the deal.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s ceremony finalises the accords.<\/p>\n The agreement has raised hopes of ending the conflict in the DRC, where the March 23 Movement (M23), a Rwanda-backed armed group, has been advancing deeper into the resource-rich east of the country.<\/p>\n The renewed violence had raised fears of a full-blown conflict, akin to the wars that the DRC endured in the late 1990s, which involved several African countries and killed millions of people.<\/p>\n Rwanda\u2019s main grievance with the DRC focuses on accusations that the Central African country has been harbouring ethnic Hutu militias linked to the 1994 Rwanda genocide, which targeted the country\u2019s Tutsi population.<\/p>\n The Trump-backed peace deal stipulates that Rwanda will end its support for M23 and the DRC will help \u201cneutralise\u201d Hutu militias \u2013 namely, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.<\/p>\n It also requires both countries to respect each other\u2019s territorial integrity.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the DRC\u2019s Tshisekedi said the agreement\u2019s terms mark a \u201cturning point\u201d for the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThey bring together, under a coherent architecture, a declaration of principles of a peace agreement and also the regional economic integration framework to provide to the peoples of the region a new perspective, a new outlook,\u201d Tshisekedi said.<\/p>\n He added that the deal would \u201cbegin a new era of friendship, cooperation and prosperity\u201d.<\/p>\n For his part, Rwanda\u2019s Kagame said the success of the pact depends on the two countries themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be ups and downs on the road ahead. There\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d Kagame explained. \u201cRwanda will not be found wanting, I can assure you of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Alan Fisher said the leaders of the DRC and Rwanda appeared to acknowledge that it will take more than a signing ceremony for the agreement to stick.<\/p>\n The conflict, Fisher explained, \u201cis a lot more ingrained, a lot more developed, a lot more aggressive than many people have assumed\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the pressure is on the United States, on the African leaders and, of course, on the two countries to make sure that what develops from here is something that can develop into a lasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n The DRC had signed a separate deal with M23 in July. Still, the fighting in the eastern parts of the country has persisted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still at war,\u201d Amani Chibalonza Edith, a 32-year-old resident of Goma, a key city captured by M23 early this year, told The Associated Press news agency.<\/p>\n \u201cThere can be no peace as long as the front lines remain active.\u201d<\/p>\n But in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Trump appeared optimistic about the prospects for peace.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see how it all works out, but I think it\u2019s going to work out really great,\u201d the US president said.<\/p>\n Trump also announced that the US will be signing bilateral deals with the DRC and Rwanda to buy rare earth minerals from the two countries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest companies over to the two countries,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to take out some of the rare earth, take out some of the assets and pay. Everybody is going to make a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n Rare earth minerals are used in emerging technologies, energy production and medical devices.<\/p>\n Trump has openly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming he has resolved eight world conflicts, though that number is disputed.<\/p>\n During Thursday\u2019s signing ceremony at the US Institute for Peace, a think tank, he heaped praise on the DRC and Rwanda. But his embrace of the countries\u2019 two leaders drew a stark contrast with his insulting remarks towards another war-torn African country: Somalia.<\/p>\n Two days before hosting the ceremonial signing, Trump hurled insults at Somalia, describing it as \u201chell\u201d and saying that \u201cit stinks\u201d.<\/p>\n He also called the Somali community in the US \u201cgarbage\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n United States President Donald Trump has hosted the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to sign a peace deal that could end the conflict between the two countries. Although the violence on the ground has not stopped, Trump hailed the US-brokered deal on Thursday as a new chapter for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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