US ‘open to minerals partnerships’ with DRC; Kabila’s allies to be questioned by military prosecutor

Officials from the party of DRC’s former president Joseph Kabila were invited to appear before a military prosecutor on Monday in a sign of political tensions over Rwanda-backed rebels’ advances in the east.

The exact reason for the invitations was not clear, said Jean Mbuyu, a lawyer for the officials and former security adviser to Kabila.

US ‘open to minerals partnerships with DRC’

The US was open to exploring critical minerals partnerships with Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the State Department said in a statement to Reuters on Sunday, after a Congolese senator contacted US officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal.

DRC, which is rich in cobalt, lithium and uranium, among other minerals, has been fighting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have seized swathes of its territory this year.

Talk of a deal with the US — which is also in discussions with Ukraine over a minerals pact — has circulated in Kinshasa for weeks.

“The United States is open to discussing partnerships in this sector that are aligned with the Trump administration’s America First Agenda,” said a State Department spokesperson, noting that DRC held “a significant share of the world’s critical minerals required for advanced technologies”.

The US had worked “to boost US private sector investment in the DRC to develop mining resources in a responsible and transparent manner,” said the spokesperson.

Kinshasa has not publicly detailed a proposal, instead saying it is seeking diversified partnerships.

“There is a desire for us to diversify our partners,” said Congolese government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya last week, adding there were “daily exchanges” between DRC and the US.

“If today American investors are interested in coming to the DRC, obviously they will find space. DRC has reserves that are available and it would also be good if American capital could invest here,” he said.

Andre Wameso, deputy chief of staff to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, travelled to Washington earlier this month for talks on a partnership, two sources told Reuters.

On 21 February, a lobbyist representing the Congolese Senator Pierre Kanda Kalambayi sent letters to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other American officials inviting US investment in DRC’s vast mineral resources in exchange for helping to reinforce “regional stability”.

That initiative was not sanctioned by the broader Congolese government or presidency, according to two Congolese officials. There are, however, several initiatives under way, albeit in nascent stages, sources from DRC’s presidency, its ministry of mines, and from Washington told Reuters.

A Congolese delegation had been scheduled to meet with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 6 March, but cancelled the meeting at short notice, according to two sources.

“I think it’s certainly something that will pique people’s interest in Washington, and I think it has attracted interest,” said Jason Stearns, a DRC expert at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, noting that DRC’s mineral supply chains were currently dominated by China.

But, he said, the US did not have state-owned companies like China does, and no private US mining companies currently operate in DRC.

“So if the Congolese want to make this work, it will probably not be by offering a US company a mining concession. They’ll have to look at more complicated ways of engaging the US”, he added.

Kabila’s allies to be questioned by military prosecutor

Officials from the party of DRC’s former president Joseph Kabila were invited to appear before a military prosecutor on Monday in a sign of political tensions over Rwanda-backed rebels’ advances in the east.

The exact reason for the invitations was not clear, said Jean Mbuyu, a lawyer for the officials and former security adviser to Kabila.

But President Tshisekedi, who once formed an awkward power-sharing deal with Kabila, has recently accused him of sponsoring the M23 rebels who have seized east Congo’s two biggest cities since January.

Kabila has also reached out to opposition politicians and civil society members to discuss the country’s political future, amid criticism of Tshisekedi’s response to M23’s military campaign.

The military prosecutor’s office sent about 10 invitation letters to members of Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, though only three people were expected to appear for questioning in the capital Kinshasa on Monday, said Mbuyu.

They included Aubin Minaku, vice-president of the party and former president of the National Assembly, and Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former interior minister and presidential candidate, said Mbuyu.

“We’re going to listen because the invitation contains no reason,” he said.

Minaku said the officials would respond to the invitations “to avoid any suspicion” and denied links to M23 or any other armed groups.

“We are taking a purely Republican approach, not one of rebellion,” he told Reuters, using “Republican” to indicate loyalty to the country.

“We clearly denounced any illicit presence of foreign forces,” he said.

The latest M23 advance is the gravest escalation of a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into DRC of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of DRC’s vast mineral resources.

Rwanda denies providing arms and troops to M23, and says its forces are acting in self-defence against the Congolese army and militias hostile to Kigali. DM