Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in which he offered extensive mineral rights to the U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund in exchange for military assistance against the Rwanda-backed insurgent group M23.
The February 8 letter, which has not officially been disclosed to the public, was allegedly reviewed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday.
“Your election has ushered in the golden age for America,” Tshisekedi told Trump. “Our partnership would provide the U.S. with a strategic advantage by securing critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, copper and tantalum from the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Tshisekedi asked Trump for unspecified military assistance and a “formal security pact” to push back M23, which has been advancing from the eastern reaches of the DRC to capture key cities and threaten the capital of Kinshasa.
A spokeswoman for Tshisekedi’s office confirmed the authenticity of the letter and said negotiations with U.S. officials over the DRC’s natural resources are already underway. A source told the WSJ that the White House National Security Council (NSC) requested a briefing on Tshisekedi’s proposal.
“The DRC is interested in partnering with the Trump administration to end the conflict and stop the flow of blood minerals via Rwanda,” Tshisekedi’s spokeswoman said.
The White House, on the other hand, refused to comment on the letter, which it described as “private correspondence to the president.”
The WSJ noted that the DRC has been separately attempting to work out a deal for securing its mining operations with former Blackwater CEO and founder Erik Prince. Blackwater is long gone, having been sold off in 2010, but Prince is involved with other private security operations and he is an outspoken supporter of President Trump.
The eastern Congo has abundant mineral resources and it could certainly use some more security. More than a hundred armed groups are known to be operating in the area, creating massive security problems for mining operations, as well as a major humanitarian crisis.
The rebel group M23, which is largely made up of fighters from the Tutsi ethnic group and is supported by Tutsi-dominated Rwanda, launched a major offensive at the beginning of the year. M23 captured the strategically vital city of Goma with Rwandan assistance in January and has taken control of other population centers since then, most recently including the mining hub of Walikale. M23 announced its capture of Walikale on Thursday, one day after Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met in Doha, Qatar and called for an immediate ceasefire.
“We are Congolese who are fighting for a cause. What happened in Doha, as long as we don’t know the details, and as long as it doesn’t solve our problems, we’ll say it doesn’t concern us,” said a spokesman for the Congo River Alliance (AFC), the larger coalition of insurgent groups that M23 belongs to.
Walikale, with a population of about 15,000, marks the furthest west M23 has been able to push into the DRC. Thousands of refugees reportedly fled the city as the insurgent force rolled in. The DRC military said it had to abandon the town because fighting back would have resulted in heavy civilian casualties.
In addition to displacing large numbers of civilians, the M23 offensive has also caused some mining companies to shut down.
M23 was supposed to meet with Congolese government officials in Angola on Tuesday for ceasefire talks, but the insurgent group pulled out of the meeting on Monday, angered by European Union (EU) sanctions imposed on several of the insurgent group’s leaders, as well as DRC efforts to recapture territory occupied by M23 forces.
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