Sawt Falasteen - Trump to sign Rwanda, DR Congo agreement even as violence rages

Trump hopes the agreement will pave the way for the United States to gain access to critical minerals in the eastern DRC, a violence-torn region home to many of the key ingredients in modern technologies such as electric cars.

Paul Kagame, the longtime president of Rwanda -- whose allies have taken a decisive edge on the ground against its turbulent neighbor -- will meet Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in the newly renamed Donald J. Trump US Institute of Peace.

The White House said that the two leaders would sign a peace agreement, more than five months after the countries' foreign ministers also met Trump and announced another deal to end the conflict.

Even on the day of Trump's latest meeting, intense fighting raged in the eastern DRC, where the M23 armed group -- which the UN says is backed by Rwanda -- has been gaining ground in recent weeks against Kinshasa's forces.

An AFP journalist at the scene heard weapon fire ring out on Thursday morning on the outskirts of Kamanyola, an M23-controlled town in South Kivu province near the borders with Rwanda and Burundi.

"Many houses have been bombed, and there are many dead," said Rene Chubaka Kalembire, an administrative official in Kaziba, a town also under M23 control, on the eve of the signing.

The long-simmering conflict exploded in late January as the M23 captured the major cities of Goma and Bukavu.

After the June agreement, the M23 -- which denies links to Rwanda -- and the Kinshasa government pledged a ceasefire following mediation by US partner Qatar, but both sides have since accused the other of violations.

- Violence shadows treaty -

After several days' worth of clashes around the town, fighter jets bombarded Kaziba again on Thursday morning, a local civil society representative who requested anonymity told AFP.

Explosions could also be heard coming from the Bugarama border post in Rwanda across the border in neighbouring Burundi, with Rwandan police temporarily shutting the frontier post on Thursday.

AFP was unable to obtain a verifiable toll from the fighting from independent sources.

Meanwhile local sources reported a massive build-up of M23 reinforcements, accompanied by armoured cars, in the high plateau of South Kivu.

The mountainous region would allow its troops to bypass the Ruzizi plain on the border with Burundi and encircle Uvira, the last major town in South Kivu to evade the M23's capture.

Trump has boasted that the eastern DRC conflict, where hundreds of thousands of people have died over several decades, is among a long list of wars he has ended since he returned to office in January.

He has voiced hope that the United States can exploit minerals in the country that otherwise could head to China.

The DRC is home to the majority of the world's cobalt, a critical mineral in batteries for electric vehicles, as well as other key minerals such as copper.

- 'Not peace for minerals' -

The Congolese government said that the agreement with Trump would include a peace deal, regional economic integration framework and a "strategic partnership" on natural resources.

Presidential spokeswoman Tina Salama said Kinshasa had been adamant that peace must be achieved on the ground before proceeding to a second stage of economic development.

"This isn't selling out on minerals to the Americans," she told reporters in Washington.

"It's not peace for minerals as has been said."

Rwanda has made the end of its "defensive measures" contingent on Kinshasa neutralizing the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu group with links to the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.

Kagame, who unlike Tshisekedi is also expected to meet Trump separately, last week publicly accused the DRC of delaying the signing of an agreement.

Congolese Communication Minister Patrick Muyaya in turn said that the fighting on the ground showed a lack of seriousness by Rwanda.

"It just proves that Rwanda doesn't want this," he said.

Both countries have been in talks with the US administration on its top priority of taking in migrants as Trump carries out a sweeping deportation drive.

Rwanda had earlier signed up to take in migrants from Britain until Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office and cancelled the plan.

bur-lb-sct-str-clt/sbk/giv

Q.Najjar--SF-PST