#Trump praises #Congo and #Rwanda as they sign U.S.-mediated peace deal.


WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump praised the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda for their courage as they signed onto a deal on Thursday aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to the U.S. government and American companies.

The moment offered Trump -- who has repeatedly and with a measure of exaggeration boasted of brokering peace in some of the world’s most entrenched conflicts -- another chance to tout himself as a dealmaker extraordinaire on the global stage and make the case that he’s deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. leader hasn’t been shy about his desire to receive the honor.

“It’s a great day for Africa, a great day for the world,” Trump said shortly before the leaders signed the pact. He added, “Today, we’re succeeding where so many others have failed.”

Trump welcomed Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, as well as several officials from other African nations who travelled to Washington to witness the signing, in the same week he contemptuously derided the war-torn country of Somalia and said he did he did not want immigrants from the East African nation in the U.S.

Lauded by the White House as a “historic” agreement brokered by Trump, the pact between Tshisekedi and Kagame follows monthslong peace efforts by the U.S. and partners, including the African Union and Qatar, and finalizes an earlier deal signed in June.

But the Trump-brokered peace is precarious.

The Central African nation of Congo has been battered by decadeslong fighting with more than 100 armed groups, the most potent being the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The conflict escalated this year, with M23 seizing the region’s main cities of Goma and Bukavu in an unprecedented advance, worsening a humanitarian crisis that was already one of the world’s largest, with millions of people displaced.
`We are still at war’

Fighting, meanwhile, continued this week in the conflict-battered region with pockets of clashes reported between the rebels and Congolese soldiers, together with their allied forces. Trump, a Republican, has often said that his mediation has ended the conflict, which some people in Congo say isn’t true.

Still, Kagame and Tshisekedi offered a hopeful tone as they signed onto to the agreement.

“No one was asking President Trump to take up this task. Our region is far from the headlines,” Kagame said. “But when the president saw the opportunity to contribute to peace, he immediately took it.”

“I do believe this day is the beginning of a new path, a demanding path, yes. Indeed, quite difficult,” Tshisekedi said. “But this is a path where peace will not just be a wish, an aspiration, but a turning point.”

Indeed, analysts say Thursday’s deal also isn’t expected to quickly result in peace. A separate peace deal has been signed between Congo and the M23.

“We are still at war,” said Amani Chibalonza Edith, a 32-year-old resident of Goma, eastern Congo’s key city seized by rebels early this year. “There can be no peace as long as the front lines remain active.”

But Trump predicted with the signing the countries would leave behind “decades of violence and bloodshed” and “begin a new year of harmony and co-operation.”

“They spent a lot of time killing each other,” Trump said. “And now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands and taking advantage of the United States of America economically like every other country does.”

Tshisekedi and Kagame did not shake hands and barely looked at each other during the roughly 50-minute signing ceremony.
Rare earth minerals

Thursday’s pact will also build on a Regional Economic Integration Framework previously agreed upon that officials have said will define the terms of economic partnerships involving the three countries.

Trump also announced the United States was signing bilateral agreements with the Congo and Rwanda that will unlock new opportunities for the United States to access critical minerals -- deals that will benefit all three nations’ economies.

“And we’ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest U.S. companies over to the two countries,” Trump said. He added, “Everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”

The region, rich in critical minerals, has been of interest to Trump as Washington looks for ways to circumvent China to acquire rare earths, essential to manufacturing fighter jets, cellphones and more. China accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90 per cent of global rare earths processing.

Trump hosted the leaders on Thursday morning for one-on-one meetings at the White House as well as a three-way conversation before the signing ceremony at the Institute of Peace in Washington, which the State Department announced on Wednesday has been rebranded “the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”

Later Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host an event that will bring together American business leaders and the Congolese and Rwandan delegations to discuss potential investment opportunities in critical minerals, energy and tourism.
Ongoing clashes

In eastern Congo, meanwhile, residents reported pockets of clashes and rebel advances in various localities. Both the M23 and Congolese forces have accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreed earlier this year. Fighting has also continued in the central plateaus across South Kivu province.

The hardship in the aftermath of the conflict has worsened following U.S. funding cuts that were crucial for aid support in the conflict.

In rebel-held Goma, which was a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts before this year’s escalation of fighting, the international airport is closed. Government services such as bank operations have yet to resume and residents have reported a surge in crimes and in the prices of goods.

“We are waiting to see what will happen because so far, both sides continue to clash and attack each other,” said Moise Bauma, a 27-year-old student in rebel-held Bukavu city.

Both Congo and Rwanda, meanwhile, have touted American involvement as a key step towards peace in the region.

“We need that attention from the administration to continue to get to where we need to get to,” Makolo said. “We are under no illusion that this is going to be easy. This is not the end but it’s a good step.”
Conflict’s cause

The conflict can be traced to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where Hutu militias killed between 500,000 and one million ethnic Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus and Twa, Indigenous people. When Tutsi-led forces fought back, nearly two million Hutus crossed into Congo, fearing reprisals.

Rwandan authorities have accused the Hutus who fled of participating in the genocide and alleged that elements of the Congolese army protected them. They have argued that the militias formed by a small fraction of the Hutus are a threat to Rwanda’s Tutsi population.

Congo’s government has said there can’t be permanent peace if Rwanda doesn’t withdraw its support troops and other support for the M23 in the region. Rwanda, on the other hand, has conditioned a permanent ceasefire on Congo dissolving a local militia that it said is made up of the Hutus and is fighting with the Congolese military.

UN experts have said that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan government forces are deployed in eastern Congo, operating alongside the M23. Rwanda denies such support, but says any action taken in the conflict is to protect its territory.

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By Aamer Madhani, Chinedu Asadu And Ruth Alonga

Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria, and Madhani from Washington. Justin Kabumba contributed to this report from Goma, Congo.

White House says DR #Congo, Rwanda to sign deal Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump will bring together the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Washington on Thursday to sign a peace agreement, months after an earlier U.S.-brokered deal failed to stop violence.

“President Trump will host the presidents of the Republic of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign the historic peace and economic agreement that he brokered,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.

Trump had met in June at the White House with the two countries’ foreign ministers as they signed an earlier deal, and has since boasted that DR Congo is one of a number of countries where he has ended war.

But violence has continued, with both sides blaming each other. It was not immediately clear how different the presidential-level agreement will be from the June deal.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame last week publicly accused the Congolese government of delaying the signing of a peace deal.

The region -- rich in minerals vital to new technologies -- has endured three decades of armed conflict, costing hundreds of thousands of lives.

Violence intensified in January when the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group captured swathes of territory, including the cities of Goma and Bukavu.

Rwanda has made the end of its “defensive measures” contingent on Kinshasa neutralizing the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu group with links to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Trump has voiced hope for securing minerals from the eastern #DRC, giving a boost to the United States over #China.

In talks last month in Washington, Rwanda and the #DRC “recognized lagging progress” in implementation of the June agreement but agreed to work on easing tensions.

On Dec 4th, President Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda will meet in the Oval Office with President Trump where they will sign a peace agreement.

#Tunisian police arrest opposition figure Chaima Issa to enforce 20-year jail term.

#TUNIS - Tunisian police arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday to enforce a 20-year prison sentence, her lawyers said.

An appeals court handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, business leaders and lawyers on Friday on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied, in what critics said was a sign of increasingly authoritarian rule.

“They will arrest me shortly,” Issa told Reuters moments before her arrest. “I say to the Tunisians, continue to protest and reject tyranny. We are sacrificing our freedom for you.”

She described the charges as unjust and politically motivated.
More arrests are expected

Police are also widely expected to arrest Najib Chebbi, the head of the opposition National Salvation Front, the main coalition challenging Saied.

He received a 12-year prison sentence and opposition figure Ayachi Hammami received a five-year sentence.

Forty people were charged in the case, one of the largest political prosecutions in Tunisia’s recent history. Twenty of those charged have fled abroad and were sentenced in absentia.

The sentences ranged from five to 45 years, according to a court document seen by Reuters.

Rights groups said the ruling was an escalation of Saied’s crackdown on dissent since he seized extraordinary powers in 2021. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for the immediate annulment of the sentences.

Critics, journalists and activists have been jailed and independent NGOs suspended.

By Tarek Amara

Daughter of S. Africa ex-president accused of recruiting for Russian forces.

South African police are investigating claims that a daughter of ex-president Jacob Zuma was involved in recruiting men to join Russian mercenaries in the Ukraine war, they said Sunday.

The allegations against Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, an MP in her father’s MK political party, were made by one of her sisters in an affidavit asking for a formal investigation, police said.

It claims Zuma-Sambudla and two other people were involved in recruiting 17 South Africans whom the presidency said this month it had been asked to be rescued from Ukraine’s war-ravaged Donbas region.

It was alleged the “men were lured to Russia under false pretences and handed to a Russian mercenary group to fight in the Ukrainian war without their knowledge or consent,” the statement said.

The case had been handed to a special police unit that investigates crimes against the state to determine the charges.

The presidency said in early November it had been asked to bring home the 17 men who were allegedly “trapped” in Donbas after being lured there “under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts”.

The war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has drawn in mercenaries on both sides, including from several African countries.

Reports in South African media said the men were allegedly sent to Russia for security training by the opposition MK party, which is headed by Zuma, the president between 2009 and 2018.

It is illegal for South Africans to join foreign armies unless authorised by the government.

There will be no US delegation at the closing ceremony of the G20 Leaders’ Summit on Sunday despite a last-minute request from Washington to accommodate members of its local mission at the event, according to well-placed SA government officials.

Armed men abduct children and staff at a #Catholic school in #Nigeria, days after latest abduction.


The attack and abductions took place at St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in Agwara local government’s Papiri community, said Abubakar Usman, the secretary to the Niger state government. He did not disclose the number of students and staff abducted, nor who might be responsible for the attack.

Local media broadcaster Arise TV said 52 schoolchildren were abducted.

The Niger State Police Command said the abductions took place in the early hours of Friday and that military and security forces have since been deployed to the community. It described St. Mary’s is a secondary school, which serves children between the ages of in 12 and 17.

The statement by the secretary to the Niger state government said the incident occurred despite prior intelligence warning of heightened threats.

“Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk,” it read.

The abductions took place days after gunmen on Monday attacked a high school and abducted 25 schoolgirls in the neighboring Kebbi state, in Maga, around 170 kilometres (105 miles) from Papiri. One the girls later escaped and is safe, the school’s principal said.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu postponed his trip to this weekend’s Group of 20 summit after promising to intensify rescue efforts.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Niger and Kebbi state, but analysts and locals say gangs often target schools, travelers and remote villagers in kidnappings for ransom. Authorities say the gunmen are mostly former herders who have taken up arms against farming communities after clashes between them over strained resources.

Abductions have come to define the insecurity prevailing in Africa’s most populous nation and the painful consequences.

At least 1,500 students have been abducted in the region since Boko Haram jihadi extremists seized 276 Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago. But bandits are also active in the region, and analysts say gangs often target schools to gain attention.

Nigeria was recently thrust into the spotlight after U.S. President Donald Trump singled the country out, stating that Christians are being persecuted — an allegation that the government rejected.

Analysts and residents blame the insecurity on a failure to prosecute known attackers, and the rampant corruption that limits weapons supplies to security forces while ensuring a steady supply to the gangs.

A satellite view shows the school compound, rectangular in shape, surrounded by a wall and attached to an adjoining primary school, with over 50 classroom and dormitory buildings. It is located on the outskirts of the town of Aguara, near the main Yelwa-Mokwa road.

Dyepkazah Shibayan, The Associated Press

At least 32 people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (#DRC), according to officials, after a bridge at a copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding.

DR #Congo mine collapse kills at least 32: official, The bridge came down Saturday onto a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for.

The DRC produces more than 70 per cent of the world supply of cobalt, which is essential for batteries used in electric cars, many laptop computers and mobile phones.

More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in giant illegal cobalt mines in the giant central African country.

Local authorities said the bridge collapsed at the Kalando mine, about 42 kilometres (26 miles) southeast of the Lualaba provincial capital, Kolwezi.

“Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry,” said Mayonde.

He said that miners rushing across the makeshift bridge, built to get across a flooded trench, made it collapse.

A report by the SAEMAPE government agency which monitors and helps mining co-operatives said that the presence of soldiers at the Kalando mine had caused a panic.

The report said the mine had been at the heart of a longstanding dispute between the wildcat miners, a cooperative that was meant to organize digging there and the site’s legal operators, who were said to have Chinese involvement.

The miners who fell “piled on top of each other causing the deaths and injuries”, the report said.

Images sent to AFP by the provincial office of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) showed miners digging out bodies from the trench, with at least 17 bodies laid out on the ground nearby.

CNDH provincial coordinator Arthur Kabulo told AFP that more than 10,000 wildcat miners operated at Kalando. Provincial authorities suspended operations at the site on Sunday.

Accusations over the use of child labour, dangerous conditions and corruption have long cast a shadow over the DRC’s cobalt mining industry.

The DRC’s mineral wealth has also been at the heart of a conflict that has ravaged the country’s east for more than three decades.

#Islamic State-backed rebels kill 17 in eastern Congo hospital attack.

The attack by the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, took place in the village of Byambwe, in the Lubero territory of North Kivu province on Friday night, Col. Alain Kiwewa, the local administrator, told The Associated Press.

“Women who were breastfeeding were brutally slaughtered and found with their throats slit in their hospital beds,” Kiwewa said, adding that 11 women and six men were killed.

The rebels also attacked other villages, said Samuel Kakule Kagheni, a civil society leader in the Manzya area, which includes Byambwe, but could not confirm the number of casualties there.

Armed groups have carried out several deadly attacks in eastern Congo, including the ADF and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The ADF, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, operates along the border with Uganda and often targets civilians.

In August, ADF fighters killed at least 52 people during several attacks in the same week, according to the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.

The group also killed nearly 40 people in Ituri province in July, when it stormed a Catholic church during a vigil and opened fire on worshippers, including many women and children.

The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following discontent with President Yoweri Museveni. In 2002, following Ugandan military strikes, the group moved to neighbouring Congo and has been blamed for the killings of thousands of civilians.

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Justin Kabumba, The Associated Press