Rwanda and the DRC sign a preliminary peace deal next week

Technical teams from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed off on a draft peace agreement on Wednesday. The two countries and the US said that the agreement is likely to be signed next week and will end fighting in eastern Congo.

The provisional agreement, which was announced in a joint statement, could be a big step forward in President Trump’s efforts to end the fighting in eastern Congo and bring billions of dollars in Western investment to the area, which is full of minerals like gold, copper, tantalum, and lithium.

A three-day negotiation led to a provisional deal that includes protection of territorial integrity, an end to hostilities, and the conditional integration of non-state armed groups that have given up their weapons.

The deal also includes plans for creating a joint security system, which is based on an idea that the two sides talked about last year while Angolan mediators were present.

The deal is set to be signed by ministers on June 27.

Angola helped Rwandan and Congolese experts come to two agreements last year about pulling out Rwandan troops and working together to fight the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu rebel group. However, the ministers from both countries did not approve the plan.

Angola stopped being a mediator between the people involved in a rebel offensive in eastern Congo backed by Rwanda in March, after several failed attempts to end the war.

Fighting got worse in eastern Congo this year when M23 rebels backed by Rwanda made an advance and took over the two biggest towns in the area, which made people worry about a wider conflict.

Congo says that Rwanda is sending men and weapons to help M23.

Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying that its forces are only protecting itself from the Congolese army and Hutu rebels who are linked to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which about a million people, mostly Tutsis, were killed.