African war-torn nation invokes Trump ‘golden age' for minerals deal in exchange for booting violent rebels
The president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo sent a letter to President Donald Trump offering a minerals deal in exchange for a security agreement with the U.S. that would remove violent rebels from the war-torn nation.
"Your election has ushered in the golden age for America," President Félix Tshisekedi wrote in February to Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "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."
The Congo has over $20 trillion worth of minerals available, according to the Congo-based Panzi Foundation, including gold and copper. The African country is also the world's largest producer of cobalt, which is essential for defense and aerospace applications, and a main component in the batteries of many electric vehicles and cellphones.
Tshisekedi seeks to strike a "formal security pact" so the Congo's army can defeat a Rwandan-backed rebel group called M23 in exchange for a minerals deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The letter did not provide details on what a potential security pact would look like or operate.
Congo "is interested in partnering with the Trump administration to end the conflict and stop the flow of blood minerals via Rwanda," a Tshisekedi spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal.
"It is in both our interests that American companies – like Apple and Tesla – buy minerals direct from source in the DRC and unlock the engine of our mineral wealth for the benefit of all the world," she added.
The Congo and Rwanda are neighboring nations and have been involved in conflict for decades, including the First Congo War from 1996 to 1997, the Second Congo War between 1998 and 2003, and the most recent ongoing conflict that began in 2022. The current conflicts are rooted in gaining access to resources, such as minerals, and claims M23 will protect ethnic minorities from the Congolese government.
The rebels seized Goma – the country's largest city of the North Kivu province – in January as fighting between the Rwanda-backed rebels and government intensified, which included the deaths of 13 U.N. peacekeepers and foreign soldiers.
Tshisekedi joined Fox News' Bret Baier Wednesday to discuss the potential minerals deal with the U.S., explaining he wants to build jobs in his nation through the extraction of the minerals, while simultaneously building a partnership with the U.S. to ensure lasting peace in the nation.
"We want to extract these minerals but also process them, as this would create a lot of jobs," Tshisekedi told Baier. "And we want a partnership that will provide lasting peace and stability for our countries, which we need."
China has a large presence in Congo, and it runs the country's cobalt mine, Fox Digital previously reported. Tshisekedi brushed off concerns that China's presence could complicate any potential deal with the U.S. during his interview with Baier.
"Nature abhors a vacuum, as the saying goes," he told Baier. "It's not that China is waxing in Africa. It's more that America is waning in Africa… and we would be very happy to have our American friends here, who used to be more present than China in the '70s and '80s."
Tshisekedi is also in negotiations with Erik Prince, the founder of private military firm formerly known as Blackwater and a Trump ally, to potentially aid the Congo's government amid the war, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the deal offer, but did not immediately receive a reply.
The offer comes after the Trump administration worked to strike a minerals deal with Ukraine, which is rich in resources such as lithium and copper, in an effort to recoup the cost of aid sent to Ukraine amid its war with Russia.
The deal, however, was put on ice after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's tense Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February.
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