Last Friday, the foreign ministers of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) met in Washington to sign an agreement to end 30 years of conflict in Africa’s Great Lakes region. The peace deal was accompanied by commitments to build a “regional economic integration framework” and promises of U.S. investment in eastern DRC’s abundant critical mineral reserves, among other commercial agreements.

Type: Question and Answer

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is looking for U.S. investors in the mining sector as a way to break China’s dominance over the country’s reserves of cobalt, copper and other critical minerals. However, the DRC’s struggles with violence and weak governance make this seem like a risky proposition — but it doesn’t have to be. USIP’s Thomas Sheehy, Gécamines’ Guy-Robert Lukama and USIP Senior Study Group on Critical Minerals in Africa member Anthony Carroll explain how the United States can build mutually beneficial partnerships with countries like the DRC that address, rather than worsen, regional instability and serve U.S. economic and security interests.

Type: Blog

After decades of poor governance, ethnic tensions and illegal resource exploitation in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwandan-backed rebels’ capture of Goma “has the potential to bring … seven countries into [the] conflict” and ignite a wider regional war, says USIP’s Joseph Sany.

Type: Podcast

On January 27, Rwandan-backed rebels known as  M23 captured Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite the presence of U.N. peacekeeping force, defense forces from other African countries, local militias, and European mercenaries hired to block its advance. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in M23’s advance into Goma, including the provincial military governor. Roughly 500,000 people fled their homes, adding to the more than two million people displaced by the long-standing conflict.

Type: Question and Answer