DRC’s Peace Deal with Rwanda Risks Swapping War for Resource Exploitation

Jun 26, 2025 | Lindani Zungu
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The United States-mediated peace agreement to be signed between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda on June 27 – a development ostensibly aimed at quelling decades of brutal conflict in Africa’s Great Lakes region – casts a long and familiar shadow. While the immediate cessation of hostilities provides a desperately needed respite, the deal, brokered by the Trump administration and witnessed by the State of Qatar, arrives with an unsettling undertone: The spectre of resource exploitation, camouflaged as diplomatic triumph. This emerging “peace for exploitation” bargain is one that African nations, particularly the DRC, should never be forced to accept in a postcolonial world order.