U.S.-led Peace Deal Won’t End War Without New Pressure

Today’s presidential signings of peace and economic deals between the DR Congo and Rwanda in Washington, DC come amid active fighting and little incentive to reverse Rwanda’s invasion.

December 4, 2025 (Washington, DC) – Today, President Donald Trump will host the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda to sign a peace accord aimed at ending the deadliest conflict globally since World War II, the war in eastern DRC. However, the agreement does not alter incentives on the ground in eastern DRC, where Rwanda is continuing its invasion via the proxy force M23, and fighting is raging.

The Trump administration has led a peace process for eastern DRC in 2025 alongside Qatar, following the Rwanda-backed intervention that escalated in January. Over 5 million people are currently displaced in eastern DRC, making it the world’s fourth highest displacement crisis.

On its face, the peace process has produced three peace accords, including framework deals between the DRC and Rwandan governments and between the DRC and the M23, and an economics-for-peace agreement.

But on the ground, M23 has expanded its territory and committed extensive human rights abuses, including ethnically targeted mass killings and torture that are likely war crimes, and over 2 million people have been newly displaced in 2025. Meanwhile, the DRC government continues to collaborate with deadly armed groups such as the Wazalendo and FDLR.

Sasha Lezhnev, Senior Policy Advisor at the Sentry, said: “The U.S.-led economics-for-peace deal is a helpful vision for the future, but ending the war in eastern DR Congo will require a much bolder approach now. The U.S., U.K., and European Union must escalate pressure and sanctions against Rwandan and DRC officials and their networks who continue to back M23 and other armed groups. Otherwise, there is an high risk that eastern DRC could become partitioned into a Rwanda-backed enclave, and the war would intensify.”

Meanwhile, all sides are profiting from conflict gold and other minerals. M23 controls key gold and tantalum mines, pillaging $70 million worth of gold since May and smuggling to Rwanda. Rwanda is set to export a record $2 billion worth of gold in 2025, a five-fold increase since 2021. DRC-backed armed groups control other gold mines and smuggle to Uganda, and conflict gold from both countries flows to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where it is refined and laundered into global gold flows.

John Prendergast, Co-Founder of The Sentry, said: “Conflict gold is a major profit incentive for Rwanda to continue its invasion via its M23 proxy, as it launders smuggled conflict gold to Dubai. The U.S., U.K., and European Union must change this incentive by escalating sanctions against conflict gold smuggling networks in the region, and banks and gold refiners should do enhanced due diligence on gold from Rwanda, Uganda, and the UAE.”