PAUL T. SHIPALE (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar)
Introduction: A Washington signing, not an African victory
In 2025, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “signed” the so-called Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity. Cameras flashed. Leaders smiled. Headlines screamed “historic”.
But the spectacle masked a raw truth: this was not a victory for African people. Peace was the narrative; minerals were the prize. Every handshake, every staged smile, hid the cold arithmetic of power.
Inside the room, tension simmered. The principals wore politeness like armour. The mediator’s eyes lingered on the earth beneath their feet, not the people above it. The African Union seemed more eager to curry favour with Washington than to defend Africa’s sovereignty.
June’s signing and December’s ratification ceremony cloaked in diplomacy. Reality cloaked in extraction. Kigali and Kinshasa played supporting roles in a show scripted by powers who measure success in profit, not human life.
The accord: Peace or political theater?
On paper, it reads like diplomacy perfected. In practice, it is an illusion wrapped in legalese:
1. Respect for Sovereignty
Rwanda and DRC pledge to respect borders.
A noble promise but already broken, again and again. Borders are sacred in theory, irrelevant in practice.
2. Disarmament of Militias
M23, FDLR, and dozens more “to disband”.
Demanding full demobilisation in eastern Congo is as futile as asking rivers to run backward.
3. Withdrawal of Rwandan Forces
A 90-day timeline.
Rwanda’s military, economic, and intelligence entrenchment in the region is decades deep. Deadlines are poetic; reality is ruthless.
4. Economic Integration
Shared mineral oversight. Cross-border infrastructure.
Sounds cooperative. In truth, it institutionalises foreign extraction under the veneer of progress.
5. International Guarantees
The U.S. and the African Union promise enforcement.
Question: peace for the Congolese people or security for global supply chains?
Why the sudden global urgency over Eastern Congo?
Eastern Congo has suffered unimaginable violence for decades, ignored until its crisis threatened markets.
In 2025, urgency arrived, not with compassion, but with profit.
Cobalt. Lithium. Copper. Gold. Tantalum.
These are not minerals. They are the veins and arteries of the modern world:
• Electric vehicles
• Smartphones
• Renewable energy systems
Control Congo, control the lifeblood of the global economy. The people? Secondary. Profit first.
Donald Trump: peacemaker or predator?
Trump’s fingerprints expose the accord’s true nature:
1. The Extraction Doctrine
“Stability” framed to secure American access to minerals long dominated by China. African lives were scenery; resources, the prize.
2. Foreign Policy Trophy
For a leader obsessed with winning, mediating Africa’s bloodied decades was symbolic glory. Photographs showed peace; power played behind the lens.
3. Containment of China and Russia
Central Africa nudged back into Washington’s orbit. A handshake, a promise, a photo: influence shifted like tides, people forgotten.
4. Peace as a Commodity
In Trump’s calculus, peace is bought and sold. The accord is a contract, not a covenant.
João Lourenço: Africa’s silent diplomat
Before Washington staged the cameras, Angola’s President João Lourenço worked quietly to prevent war:
1. The Luanda Process
Kept Kigali and Kinshasa at the table when bullets might have flown.
2. The Runway for Washington
By 2025, groundwork was laid. Washington may have landed the plane but Lourenço built the runway.
3. Recognition Deferred
Despite shaping breakthroughs, he was sidelined at the final ceremony. Humility? Or the surrender of African agency?
Will this peace survive?
The Great Lakes region is a graveyard of broken promises:
1. Trust Is Scarce
Rwanda and DRC share a history of betrayal.
2. Militias Don’t Sign Treaties
They respond to survival, not ceremonial signatures.
3. Minerals May Ignite New Wars
If wealth flows outward while suffering stays local, rebellion is inevitable.
4. Justice Is Absent
No accountability. No reparations. No truth.
A peace built on silence is doomed to fracture.
5. Implementation: Africa’s Eternal Trap
Accords shine briefly on paper, then fade under reality’s harsh light.
Conclusion: peace accord or neocolonial blueprint?
Celebrated as diplomacy perfected, the 2025 Rwanda–DRC accord is, in truth, a calculated convergence of:
• African political manoeuvring
• American geopolitical strategy
• Mineral-driven urgency disguised as humanitarian concern
Applied with integrity, it could foster genuine stability. Executed as a business venture for foreign powers, it will be another chapter in the centuries-old story of African wealth feeding the world while African people suffer.
History will not judge this accord by ceremonies in Washington, but in
• Goma
• Bukavu
• Rutshuru
Where the questions are brutally simple:
• Does violence end?
• Do communities prosper?
• Is peace a human right or just another commodity for sale? Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or this newspaper but are solely our personal views as citizens and Pan-Africanists.
