The meeting builds on earlier agreements to end fighting in the eastern DRC, which remains under discussion.
Published on 1 December 2025
US President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday, the White House has announced.
Spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt told reporters that DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will sign the “historic peace and economic deal brokered by Trump”.
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The event followed the signing by the foreign ministers of the two African nations Preliminary peace agreement and an economic deal at a White House event in June. After months of talks, they met in Qatar in November and signed a framework containing the final objectives. The end of years of fighting.
M23 rebels have fought the DRC government for more than a decade in North Kivu province in a conflict rooted in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Of the more than 100 groups operating in eastern DRC, the rebels are mainly made up of ethnic Tutsi, who were targeted by Hutu in Rwanda.
The group resurfaced in 2021 with alleged support from Rwanda. Kigali has refused to work directly with M23, instead allowing Rwandan forces to act in self-defense against the DRC’s military and ethnic Hutu fighters in the porous border region.
Thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in an offensive earlier this year that saw the M23 seize two of DRC’s largest cities.
Sporadic fighting continues as ceasefire talks progress.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said at least 319 civilians were killed in North Kivu province by M23 warplanes “assisted by members of the Rwandan Defense Forces” in July, after an initial White House agreement.
Details of the final agreement were not immediately clear.
In Doha, Qatar, the two sides signed two of eight implementing protocols, including provisions for ceasefire monitoring and another for prisoner exchanges.
Other protocols related to timelines, details of humanitarian aid delivery and the return of displaced people are yet to be agreed upon.
Other unresolved issues at the time included restoring state authority, implementing economic reforms, reintegrating armed groups into the government, and eliminating foreign groups.
A DRC presidential spokesman told the Associated Press news agency in November that any deal must guarantee the country’s “territorial integrity.”
Despite the lingering questions, Trump has repeatedly claimed the struggle is one of many he has faced since taking office in January.