EXCLUSIVE — One of President Donald Trump’s most celebrated peace deals has largely collapsed, but the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s prime minister believes it can still be saved.
Trump brokered a peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda in July, boosting hopes that the bloodiest conflict since World War II could finally be drawing to an end. Hopes have since waned after the Rwandan-backed March 23 rebels resumed offensive operations in August.
DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka visited Washington, D.C. for an international economics conference and sat down with the Washington Examiner for an interview, revolving around Trump’s peace deal, the DRC’s relations with Rwanda, critical minerals, and the future of the country. Suminwa spoke through a translator.
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Suminwa’s task
Suminwa is the first female prime minister of the DRC in its history. She was sworn into office on June 11, 2024, by President Felix Tsishekedi. While Tsishekedi is the head of state, Suminwa wields significant power as the head of government. Tsishekedi has ultimate authority, especially over military and foreign policy matters, but Suminwa is responsible for translating his vision into concrete policies.
Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at the Congolese research institute Ebuteli, told DW last month that Tshisekedi’s vision “has promised more jobs, more security, and more purchasing power. Also, a more inclusive economy and better efficiency of public services.”
Many of Suminwa’s answers revolved around this vision. She spoke optimistically of fighting corruption through the “digitalization” of many state services and bureaucracy, updating the DRC’s investment code to draw in more international investment, pursuing legal and judicial reforms to make the country a more appealing place for U.S. and other international businesses, diversifying the economy, and cultivating the nation’s human capital.
Despite her optimism, Suminwa has a difficult task. The DRC has been plagued by state capacity weakness since the country was hollowed out by former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled from 1971 to 1997. The corrupt ruler stripped the country’s institutions, including the military, to the extent that it was barely able to put up a fight when Rwandan forces invaded in 1996. The related Second Congo War, which drew in nine African countries, became the deadliest war since World War II, killing anywhere from three million to 5.4 million people.
The country has struggled to recover since a peace agreement was struck in July 2003. Ensuing governments have dealt with insurgencies vying for control of the country’s rich mineral resources in the remote east. Suminwa took office just as the greatest existential threat faced by the country was gaining steam — the Rwanda-backed March 23 insurgency. It shocked the world by seizing one of the DRC’s largest cities, the regional capital of Goma, in January.
The war and related instability have thrown a wrench in many of Suminwa’s plans, but she’s used the opportunity to help draw international attention to the country’s plight. She has maintained her optimism throughout, arguing that the DRC is still in an excellent position, largely due to its large population. Nearly 70% of the 100-million population is young, providing ample human capital to transform the country.
State of peace negotiations
Though the June 27 Washington agreement between Rwanda and the DRC boosted hopes around the world, the deadlines passed without being implemented. The peace deal called for the withdrawal of Rwandan forces from the DRC over 90 days, the implementation of an economic integration framework within 90 days, and the establishment of a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days.
The related Doha agreement, which was between the DRC government and M23 rebels directly, also failed to be implemented.
In June, President Donald Trump warned of “very severe penalties, financial and otherwise,” if either side violated the agreement. So far, no major punishments have been implemented.
Suminwa placed the blame squarely on M23 and Rwanda for the failure of the agreement, and voiced her belief that Rwanda should be punished.
“Since there’s no ceasefire yet, and the [Rwandan] troops haven’t withdrawn, the Congolese forces have the obligation to defend the population and continue fighting,” she said.
“It is clear to me that we still have Rwandan troops in the DRC,” she said, noting that this was in direct violation of the June agreement and United Nations resolutions, holding that all Rwandan troops “had to leave Congolese territory to allow us to regain our sovereignty.”
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The U.S. and Rwanda
Rwanda holds a unique status as one of the most well-known African countries in the U.S., almost entirely due to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Most Americans were alive when the genocide occurred, and the younger generations were raised being taught about the genocide in school. In the minds of many Americans, the genocide holds the unenviable spot of one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century in the American lexicon, alongside such crimes as the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, and the Cambodian Genocide.
Naturally, this lends considerable sympathy to modern Rwanda, especially as the country is led by Paul Kagame, the man who led the Tutsi militia that put a stop to the genocide in a lightning offensive.
When asked if she believed the genocide had biased the U.S. in favor of Kigali, Suminwa waved off the possibility, arguing that much of the DRC has since been the subject of genocide from Rwandan-backed forces..
“I’m not too concerned about the bias of the U.S., because what we are concerned about in the mediations for peace was in the region of the Great Lakes. We are very sorry for what happened in Rwanda, like everybody else, but we have also in our own country been subject to genocides” by Rwandan-backed forces, she argued. “A lot of the population has been displaced because of the illegal exploitation of our minerals.”
One of the central tenets of the Washington Accords was addressing Rwanda’s longest-running concern: the presence of DRC-based Hutu extremist militias, mainly the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the descendants of the genocidaires of 1994. Kinshasa failed to disarm and combat the groups as stipulated in the June agreement. Still, Suminwa argued that it was only due to the impossibility of the task, as most of the areas where the group operates weren’t under the full control of the DRC.
A difficult aspect of negotiations has been the nature of M23, the leading armed group in the rebel Congo River Alliance, a collection of anti-Kinshasa militias. Kinshasa and most analysts believe the group is heavily backed by Rwanda, something Kigali has repeatedly denied.
A December 2024 U.N. report alleged that M23 had become a de facto extension of the Rwanda Defense Forces. The report argued that roughly 4,000 regular RDF troops were operating alongside M23, sometimes fighting Congolese armed forces alongside them. M23 itself now resembles a conventional army, with uniforms, modern equipment, and advanced tactics rather than the ragtag militia group it once was.
Most directly, the RDF had “de facto control” over M23 command, and “Every M23 unit was supervised and supported by RDF special forces.”
Suminwa elaborated on Kinshasa’s view, citing the U.N. report to back up the assessment that M23 and the RDF are intricately linked. While ceding that M23 is an actual Congolese group, she argued that it wouldn’t exist at this point without Rwanda’s support.
She said that this position hasn’t clashed with the U.S.
“Maybe the [U.S.] public at large doesn’t understand that subtlety, but this is certainly one of the things we’re trying to do here in our negotiations,” Suminwa said, adding that the U.S. was “more sensitive and understanding” to the DRC’s position after talks this year.
Minerals
Despite being one of the poorest countries on Earth, Congo is one of the most mineral-rich. The country produces significant amounts of copper, diamonds, gold, and cobalt, making up over 80% of the world’s production of the latter. Of particular interest to the U.S., Congo produces significant amounts of 3T minerals — tin, tungsten, and tantalum — which are used in virtually all consumer electronics.
The Washington peace agreement followed the logic of the Trump administration’s other international dealings, using economic investment from the United States to give the U.S. a stake in securing peace while reaping economic benefits. Trump threatened crippling sanctions against any party that violated the treaty.
Outside of the treaty, Kinshasa is hoping to secure a partnership with the U.S. through economic deals around its mineral wealth. Suminwa painted it as a possibility that benefits everyone.
“For me, I see this as a partnership, a win-win situation for everybody. I would like for businesses to come and invest in the DRC, in our country, mostly in the private sector. This would allow us to develop, create more development and create more jobs, and help the population, and it will be seen as a win-win situation for both parties,” Suminwa said. “In this respect, we’ve already started improving the business environment in our country.”
While she didn’t speak with Trump directly during her Washington visit, she met with leaders in the Department of Commerce to discuss investment opportunities.
“I believe that Trump would be interested in this kind of partnership, and that would be economically and strategically interesting for us both,” Suminwa said.
She addressed a key concern of Washington — the stranglehold China has on critical minerals worldwide, especially in the DRC.
According to the U.S. Army War College, Chinese state-owned enterprises control 80% of Congolese cobalt production. The monopoly extends to refining cobalt, with Chinese enterprises controlling between 60% and 90% of cobalt refineries. China relies on this cobalt for many growing industries, such as electric vehicle production.
“We should point out that many Chinese companies came to our country through buyouts of companies that had U.S. participation,” Suminwa said. “This is why we tell our U.S. investors, to those who want to come back, to come back but learn from the past but join us in a partnership that is fair and equitable, because we are ready and we want to create these partnerships.”
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The future of peace in Congo
After the deadlines for the Washington and Doha agreements came and went, many analysts wrote off the attempts as yet another failed effort to bring peace to an area that has been consumed by war for nearly 30 years. Suminwa doesn’t take this position.
“Negotiations are a process, and the fact that not everything was aligned for both of us doesn’t mean that we should not continue with the process,” she said. “And if the conversations and the talks are continuing, this is encouraging. That we need to continue until we reach the goal of peace.”
“But it is very important that those points that were part of the agreement are respected and that would really allow us to reach that peace that our population is so much looking forward to,” Suminwa added.
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She also joined Tsishekedi in entertaining one of Trump’s most sought-after goals, if these peace efforts are ultimately successful.
“Our own president mentioned it during the last assembly of the United Nations, that if peace could be reached through the mediation of President Trump in Congo, we would be in favor of voting for the Nobel Peace Prize for him,” Suminwa said.