Minerals deal with US won’t stop fighting in DR of Congo, says rebel leader

The leader of the rebels who captured two key cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo says international sanctions and the planned minerals deal that the country has offered the US will not stop the fighting between their members and Congolese forces in the hard-hit region.

With such sanctions and a bounty placed on the rebel leaders by the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government, “we will fight like people who got nothing to lose in order to secure the future of our country,” Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC) that includes the M23 rebel group, told The Associated Press.

Mr Nangaa also dismissed Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi’s comments last week that his country is looking for a minerals partnership with the US that will bring peace and stability for both countries.

Since launching a major escalation of their decade-long fighting with the Congolese forces in late January, the M23 rebels have captured the cities of Goma and Bukavu and several towns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, forcing thousands of soldiers to either flee or surrender and prompting fears of regional warfare involving neighbours whose militaries are also on the ground.

Most of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mineral resources, estimated to be worth 24 trillion dollars (£18.5 trillion) and critical to much of the world’s technology, remain untapped, according to the US Department of Commerce last year.

The US government has not publicly spoken about any minerals deal being planned with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which local observers say could be similar to the Trump administration’s offer for Ukraine to help end the war with Russia.

“This problem can be better resolved by the concerned Congolese, not foreigners with different geopolitical agendas,” Mr Nangaa told The AP over the weekend.

“Trying to bribe US with mines can undermine US credibility.”

Efforts to achieve a ceasefire collapsed last week after the rebels pulled out from talks being facilitated by Angola, condemning European Union sanctions on its leaders.

Mr Nangaa also rejected the outcome of a meeting between Congolese and Rwandan leaders in Qatar, saying such a move to achieve peace without the group’s involvement would fail and that the rebels can only have a dialogue with the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government if the country acknowledges their grievances and the root causes of the conflict.

“Anything regarding us which are done without us, it’s against us,” Mr Nangaa said.

Despite calls for a ceasefire, M23 rebels have now seized the key town of Walikale which gives them control of a strategic road linking four provinces in eastern Congo — North Kivu, South Kivu, Tshopo and Maniema — effectively cutting off Congolese army positions.

In seizing more territories beyond Goma — the only city they captured during their short-lived uprising in 2012 — the rebels aim to “secure” citizens in those places and fight the root causes of the conflict, the rebel leader said.

The most potent of about 100 armed factions vying for control in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M23, is mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis who failed to integrate into the Congolese army.

The group says it is defending ethnic Tutsis and Congolese of Rwandan origin from discrimination.

Although UN experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces supporting the rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr Nangaa said the rebel alliance is independent and seeks to address “the root cause of more than 30 years of instability in our country”.