USA-DRC-RWANDA tripartite mining agreement: an imperialist maneuver to better legitimize the looting of the Congo

Kinshasa and Washington finalize discussions around a strategic mining agreement aimed at attracting American investments in critical minerals from the DRC, including cobalt, lithium and tantalus. The objective is to set up a regional value chain with extraction in the DRC, treatment in Rwanda and a transparent governance system, in order to reduce dependence on the circuits dominated by China. The signing of this agreement will also be conditioned on the total withdrawal of Rwandan forces and rebels from the M23 of the sensitive areas of the East Congolese, especially around Goma and Bukavu.

But behind the speeches relating to cooperation and security hides a new form of imperialist domination. It is, neither more nor less, a return made up to the old system of colonial protectorate which, yesterday as today, is only intended to submit and the exploitation of the Congolese people.

The DRC since its formal independence in 1960 had only wars, foreign interventions and chronic instability. This chaos is not the result of chance: it is skilfully maintained by the imperialist powers in order to keep its hand on the immense riches of the Congolese subsoil. Cobalt, coltan, copper, iron, manganese, diamond, gold, uranium, lithium, rare earths … are all strategic resources coveted by capitalist monopolies to run their industries and fuel their technological transition. But these riches do not benefit from the Congolese people. On the contrary, they are sources of war, misery and desolation, with more than 6 to 8 million dead in thirty years in the east of the country.

In this predation system, Paul Kagame’s Rwanda plays a role of subcontractor. For decades, this country, supported, funded and protected by the Western powers, notably the United States, France and Belgium has served as a point of military and logistical support for the occupation and looting of the eastern provinces of the DRC. The crimes committed by armed groups like the M23, supported by Kigali, are largely documented. However, the great powers turn their eyes, because these crimes guarantee them indirect but safe access to Congolese minerals, under the cover of “official” supply chains.

It is in this context that the regime in place in Kinshasa, weakened, corrupt and totally dependent, chooses to reach out to his executioner in order to sign a mining agreement with the United States, the main protector of Rwanda and also with Rwanda. As a result, the DRC will institutionalize its own domination.

This imminent agreement, presented as a security partnership, is nothing other than a protectorate treaty, such as those signed in the time of colonization by Dupper or forced African kings. It does not aim at the protection of the Congolese people, but the securing of imperialist interests in the region, to the detriment of the country’s sovereignty. Let us remember that a year ago (February 2024), the European Union signed an agreement with Rwanda on sustainable value chains for raw materials while war is in full swing in the DRC with the involvement of Rwanda alongside the rebels of the M23. And it is proven and documented by the UN and the NATO countries that Rwanda arms M23 and plunders the mining resources of the DRC in return. And so, this kind of agreement is so horrible that MEP voted a resolution in February 2025 to demand the suspension of this agreement, the freezing of budgetary and military aid in Rwanda and M23. The US also summoned Rwanda to stop the assault against the DRC. And even threatened him with sanctions. But now, it is practically the same people who today activate around a mining agreement on the DRC.

And therefore, this agreement will more seriously legitimize the assault of Rwanda against the DRC. He made Washington an arbitrator in a conflict where he is clearly judge and party. In reality, the victim (the DRC) is placed under the supervision of the protector of his executioner (Rwanda). It is a real politico-diplomatic scandal which demonstrates the degree of alienation of certain African leaders.

What the DRC-USA-Rwanda agreement is organizing is the continuation and legalization of the international network of looting of Congolese resources, with the conductor of the imperialist powers of NATO, their predatory multinationals, and for regional relays, the Rwanda of Kagamé. The Congolese people, instead of being master of their resources, becomes hostage of a globalized mafia system which transforms its wealth into a curse.

Faced with this new neocolonial, revolutionaries and African patriotic aggression must learn from history. Real independence is not obtained by military agreements with the imperialists, or by calls for help to those who organize our submission.

The only viable path is that of organized resistance, rupture with imperialist alliances and the construction of active solidarity between African peoples fighting against neocolonialism. This necessary start goes through the rejection of any reformist illusion and by the overthrow of puppet regimes which sell off national sovereignty in the name of “security” or “cooperation”.

In conclusion, this agreement in negotiation is not a solution for peace in Congo: it is an additional step in the plan of dismemberment, occupation and looting of this martyr country. Like Patrice Lumumba or Laurent-Désiré Kabila, combatants of the country’s true independence, the Congolese people are called upon to mobilize to end this new imperialist diktat to which President Tshisekedi is subject to.

Sovereignty does not be able to go. She conquers herself in the struggle, defends herself in the organization, and is consolidated in the conscience of the popular masses. It is the duty of the progressive forces of Africa and the whole world to stand alongside the Congolese people to demand the immediate end of this imposed war, the withdrawal of all foreign forces, and the total restitution of its sovereignty.

Dine