As Peace Looms in Congo, Expert Says US Delivers ‘Heavy Blow to China’
Udumbara
.
JOHANNESBURG—Congo and Rwanda have now signed a U.S.-brokered agreement that could end almost 30 years of war in Central Africa, igniting a race for access to vast reserves of critical minerals and precious metals.
The United States is after Congo’s resources, which include cobalt, tantalum, and lithium. These are essential to the global energy transition to electric power and are used in electronics, such as computers and cell phones, as well as in the production of weapons and military equipment.
Washington played a key role in the peace talks, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulous, negotiating a minerals-for-peace agreement with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi.
Major powers, especially China, the United States, and the European Union, are competing for the minerals, with Congo in the middle of what many analysts have called a global scramble.
Tshisekedi has been hanging on to power in recent months while Rwandan-backed M23 rebels seized control of large swaths of eastern Congo, vowing to oust him and driving out U.N. peacekeepers.
The offer could allow the United States to usurp China, which signed a minerals extraction deal with Kinshasa in 2008 and promised to build infrastructure such as schools and hospitals across the poverty-stricken nation.
China ships Congo’s minerals home for processing to drive its electric vehicle and electronics manufacturing sectors, and to produce renewable-energy storage devices and weapons, including missile systems, tanks, and fighter jets.
.
However, the Congolese have become increasingly unhappy with the Sicomines project, which is short for Sino–Congolese mining.
Smith Etumba Kashinde, a Congolese political analyst and former African Union Youth Charter representative, told The Epoch Times that if the United States entered “significantly” into minerals extraction in Congo, it could allow Washington to “wipe out” past mistakes.
“The feeling in DRC is that Trump is obviously interested in money and in serving the interests of his nation, but that Trump knows that these interests are best served when there’s peace,” he said.
“Should America come in and be a force for positive change in our country, change that results in real development for the Congolese people, rather than simply lining the pockets of foreigners and local political elites, the DRC will be most grateful.”
Kashinde said the Chinese “were never interested in peace” in Congo.
“They wanted our minerals, and that’s it. They wanted complete control of our mines, and they got that,” he said.
“But the rise of Trump has presented Tshisekedi with another alternative, an alternative in which he sees his people winning as well as the Americans winning. In this scenario, the Chinese lose.”
Emmanuel Aduku, a geopolitical expert at the Africa Policy Research Institute in Nigeria, told The Epoch Times that “Trump’s vision is for the United States to deal a heavy blow to China by replacing it as Kinshasa’s chief foreign partner in getting minerals out of the ground and into the American economy, as part of his promise to ‘Make America Great Again.’”
An October 2024 study by the institute concluded that Chinese state-owned enterprises and policy banks control 80 percent of Congo’s cobalt output. Of the 10 largest cobalt mines in the world, the institute said, nine are in Congo’s southern Katanga region, and of the 10, half are owned by Chinese companies.
The institute’s experts said China sources nearly 68 percent of its refined cobalt from Congo.
“If the U.S. breaks China’s hold on cobalt, that’s a gamechanger for the world,” said David van Wyk, a South African independent mining and minerals analyst.
“China exerts strict, some would say selfish, control of global supplies, and hopefully, the U.S. would not follow that route,” he told The Epoch Times.
Jean-Pierre Okenda, a veteran Congolese lawyer and minerals expert, said the Trump administration should “demand profound reforms that help to end the corruption” that he said has “destroyed” democracy and eroded Congo’s economy.
“This must happen before any American mining companies arrive here,” he told The Epoch Times. “I would also like to see the Trump administration supporting domestic processing of raw minerals, so that the dollars flow into DRC pockets.
“If reforms like this don’t happen, then the agreement with the Americans won’t be much different from the deal we signed with China.”
He pointed out that “if the Congolese continue to live in misery, seeing no benefit from all the money under their feet, any U.S. missions in DRC are going to fail because the people will rise up against the foreigners, like they are doing against the Chinese.”
Dave Peterson, senior director of the Africa Program at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, told The Epoch Times that many Congolese see the United States as a “beacon of hope for ideals such as freedom, peace, democracy, justice, and human rights.”
He said the U.S. private sector should take the lead in transforming Congo and be a “force for good.”
Trump’s promised “golden age” of America, said Peterson, “cannot be built on the blood of innocents.”
Peterson called on the Trump administration to ensure that U.S. companies are committed to resource extraction practices that abide by international standards of human rights and transparency.
“The private sector can pave the way for stability and prosperity in DRC,” he said.
KoBold is backed by American billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
The agreement will enable the company to invest more than $1 billion to develop the lithium project.
.
