The deal proposed by Kinshasa to the Donald Trump administration, which consists of exchanging the DRC’s mineral resources for security support from the United States, appears to be entering a concrete phase. Barely appointed as the US President’s Special Envoy for Africa on April 1, 2025, Massad Boulos immediately visited Kinshasa where he arrived on Thursday, April 3. The American of Lebanese origin is responsible for implementing the transactional foreign policy of the new White House boss. This bodes well for Kinshasa, faced with Chinese insatiable appetite and predatory Rwandan hegemony.
After conferring with President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi in Kinshasa, Massad Boulos was due to travel to Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, three countries heavily involved in the violence destabilizing the eastern DR Congo. Some within the Tshisekedi government are convinced that ending the recurring destabilization campaigns in eastern Congo requires a security agreement with the world’s leading power regarding the exploitation of the famous critical minerals that abound in the subsoil of the provinces that have been constantly scoured by Rwandan phalanxes for the past thirty years.
The Trump administration’s interest in a relentless fight against China’s creeping influence on the African continent is evident. It should be noted that in recent days, the issue of ways and means to counter the rampant influence of Chinese companies with little regard for legality and human rights in the African mining sector has been raised, notably in the US Senate. “Reports confirm that sanctions against networks in African countries (Sudan, the Sahel, and Congo) have completely alienated global banking partners, as they are unwilling to take the risk of distinguishing the good from the bad actors in the mining sector. This is pushing most of the good actors to join bad actors in negotiating with the only remaining option for trade and mining financing: China,” says Mr. Ndongala, a former senior official in the House of Representatives.
Participation in the Mining Sector
The United States is therefore determined to implement a new approach to American participation in the African mining sector that could drastically reduce Chinese hegemony without falling into the laxity demonstrated in recent years. In Kinshasa, the U.S. Special Envoy came to propose and clarify U.S. conditions. Accompanied by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Corina Sanders, Massad Boulos met with the DRC Head of State and several officials and business leaders to promote investment in the Congolese private sector, particularly in mining. “The United States will continue to provide foreign assistance. But we want our assistance to be strategically aligned with our foreign policy priorities as well as those of the countries hosting the United States, with whom we are partners”, declared U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 31.
Rwandan, Ugandan, and Kenyan influence
But the deal seems far from certain for Kinshasa, given the influence of Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya, three countries which, according to some observers, derive enormous profits from the DRC’s mineral resources and, to this end, directly or through proxies, maintain endemic insecurity. The route taken by Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for his first African trip is therefore no accident. Massad Boulos is also visiting countries that can also boast deals to offer the Americans. Although they are involved in the acquisition of Congolese mineral resources through ‘’Chinese’’ channels, that is, illegally.
Ending the armed conflict in eastern DRC requires engaging with its real, or perceived, instigators. It remains to be seen which way the American balance will ultimately tip following the visit of Trump’s emissaries to the region.
In the meantime, Kinshasa has taken care to spare its horse. Two days before the arrival of the American emissaries, President Tshisekedi issued executive orders commuting the death sentences imposed on three American nationals sentenced to death following an attempted coup in Kinshasa to life imprisonment. The beneficiaries are Marcel Malanga Malu, Taylor Christa Thomson, and Zalman Polun Benjamin, sentenced in the trial for the May 19, 2024 coup. A welcome start to the exchange of goodwill between strategic allies.
J.N. with The Maximum