Peace for minerals: Negotiations between the US and Congo raise alarm bells

The world's largest exporters of coltan—essential for digitalization , the energy transition, and weapons production—have become the latest example of the US government's transactional politics. At a time when world powers are seeking to secure supplies of critical minerals for the economy, dominated by China , the Donald Trump administration has sat down at the table with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring Rwanda , with whom it hopes to close economic agreements in a couple of months.

The US plan is to pacify eastern DRC , a mineral-rich region where conflict has claimed some six million lives over the past 30 years, and pave the way for American investors. A plan that sounds good, but it has raised red flags among experts and civil society representatives inside and outside Africa, tired of seeing local political elites and foreign corporations enrich themselves at the expense of the Congolese population, which remains among the poorest and most aggrieved in the world.

EL PAÍS spoke with leading experts in Congo, the US, and Europe about the key issues surrounding the negotiations; why the DRC is a wealthy country, but at the bottom of the human development index ; and what role various actors, including the European Union, should play in ending the region's natural resource curse.

In February 2025, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi wrote a letter to the Trump administration offering access to key materials for the US arms and technology sectors. In return, he was to help them expel the M23 armed group from the east of the country, which continues its deadly advance to control critical mineral deposits.

The UN and Western governments accuse Rwanda of supporting this Tutsi militia in neighboring Congo with weapons and troops, and of exporting minerals such as gold, tungsten, and tantalum plundered from the DRC. In this context, the Trump administration has chosen to pressure Kinshasa and Kigali to work on a peace agreement . Once signed, it plans to seal bilateral agreements that will ensure the supply of critical minerals to the US in exchange for investment.

The details of these pacts are still unknown. However, a possible agreement between the US and the DRC raises questions about its ability to promote development in a region marked by plunder and abuse since Leopold II of Belgium seized the Congo in 1885.

Local authorities see the DRC as a prize, a mere source of raw materials to be exploited for their private benefit, as in the time of Leopold II.

Jean Pierre Okenda, director of La Sentinelle des Resources Naturelles

Alex Kopp, an expert with the investigative NGO Global Witness , fears that these swaps suggest that "only countries with resources to offer can afford to live in safety." "It's easy for these kinds of negotiations to border on extortion, because one of the parties is a country under attack and needs immediate protection, so there's a risk that they will end up paying an exaggerated price for it," Kopp warned via email. He referred to the recent minerals agreement between the US and Ukraine as a "dangerous precedent."

Meanwhile, American expert Jason Stearns , affiliated with Simon Fraser University and founder of the Congo Research Group at New York University, warns of the dangers of an economic agreement with Rwanda. "If the US gets involved in the mining sector in Rwanda—for example, with companies dedicated to processing minerals—it will be investing in contraband goods," he said in a telephone interview.

Another key question that, according to Stearns, remains to be seen is what all these agreements will mean for ordinary Congolese people.

The DRC is a rich country, but its population is poor. Jean Pierre Okenda, a leading expert on extractive industries and governance, points out that the country has been governed by a kleptocratic system since colonization and the subsequent dictatorial regime of Mobutu Sese Seko , who rose to power with the support of the US and Belgium and plundered the country for three decades.

“Local authorities see the DRC as a prize, a mere source of raw materials to be exploited for their private benefit, as in the era of Leopold II,” laments Okenda, who currently heads the Congolese NGO La Sentinelle des Ressources Naturelles. “Systematic and institutionalized corruption is a real cancer,” he adds in a telephone conversation.

Exploitative deals often go hand in hand with corruption and state capture.

Alex Kopp, Global Witness expert

Abusive trade pacts, such as the minerals agreement the DRC signed with China in 2008 and renegotiated in 2024 , are often a consequence of this system. “Exploitative deals often go hand in hand with corruption and state capture,” says Kopp of Global Witness. “In fact, colonial and neocolonial powers have frequently turned to local authorities who supported their agendas and accepted bribes in exchange for repressing those who demanded that the country’s resources be used for the benefit of the population.”

Okenda, who recently participated in the OECD Forum on Responsible Minerals Supply Chains held in early May in Paris, has delved into the topic of state capture, a type of influence exercised by economic and political elites, in the DRC. Seventeen years after the so-called "deal of the century" with China, the African country still lacks a national strategy on critical minerals to guide their management.

According to the expert, who participated in the revision of the DRC's Mining Code in 2018, the majority of the country's budget ends up being allocated to the operation of political cabinets, and barely a tenth of the annual national budget is allocated to the flagship development program launched by Tshisekedi. Furthermore, the salaries of the deputies are unknown.

Provinces like Katanga, rich in cobalt and copper, are exporting minerals in their practically raw state—that is, without added value—due to issues such as the lack of electricity supply. This is despite a "minerals for infrastructure" agreement with China and a promise to industrialize the Congolese economy.

The DRC's General Financial Inspectorate, which audits public accounts, concluded that China invested less than 30% of the planned resources in 2008 and that the whereabouts of more than 60% of these funds remain unknown. Then there are the tax exemptions stipulated in the agreement, which have cost the DRC a fortune.

"The agreement between the US and the DRC should strengthen—rather than undermine—the stability of Congolese democratic institutions, breaking with the kleptocratic conception of the state that has existed since colonization," Okenda summarizes.

Western countries, which provide nearly a third of Rwanda's income, must freeze aid, and the European Union (EU) must suspend its shameful raw materials agreement with Rwanda.

Alex Kopp, Global Witness expert

In his view, Americans should demand profound reforms against the corruption that has destroyed the DRC's democratic and economic progress, and support the processing of raw minerals on Congolese soil based on principles of good governance.

"Otherwise, there will be no difference between a pact with the US or with China, which takes advantage of fragile states like ours to enrich itself while the Congolese live in misery," says the expert.

Okenda's main appeal to Congolese leaders is to put the common good before their own political aspirations. The long term before the short term. Public benefit before private profit.

A key practice, he explains, is selecting negotiators with the appropriate technical knowledge and capabilities, rather than relying on criteria of political loyalty. He also says it's necessary to break the culture of opacity in decision-making: the Congolese learned about the DRC's initial offer to the US through foreign media, for example. And, he adds, independent monitoring of the agreements must be guaranteed.

One challenge is that only 19% of the DRC's territory has been explored for mineral resources, so the country doesn't really know what resources it has. Exploration can only be achieved with multi-billion-dollar private sector investment, which in turn requires legal certainty and carefully calibrated incentives to offset investor risk without compromising the DRC's long-term interests, as has been the case to date.

In any case, Stearns of the Congo Research Group doubts that the US will be able to wrest dominance from China, which controls the entire ecosystem of critical minerals, from extraction to subcontracting, transportation, and processing.

Regarding the escalating violence in eastern DRC, experts agree that international pressure is needed to force Rwanda to withdraw its troops from the neighboring country and its support for the M23. At the same time, powers such as the EU and the US should avoid purchasing minerals linked to the conflict.

A Global Witness investigation published in April, for example, found that a Luxembourg-based company purchased 280 tons of coltan in Rwanda, allowing the country to export—and thus launder—contraband minerals connected to the war in eastern DRC.

"Western countries, which provide nearly a third of Rwanda's income, must freeze aid, and the European Union (EU) must suspend its shameful raw materials agreement with Rwanda," Kopp said.

Okenda observes that in the race for access to minerals, there's a temptation to turn a blind eye to corruption: "If China doesn't follow any good practices and is cornering the market, why should we?" He concludes: "The truth is that more and more of us Congolese are fed up with this predatory model. The unbridled exploitation of our resources must end."