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Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment

Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with DR Congo's Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner (R) and Rwandan FM Olivier Nduhungirehe (2nd-L) at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 28 June 2025

Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment

Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment
  • Deal calls on DRC and Rwanda to aunch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days
  • Trump aims to end years of fighting, warns of ‘severe penalties’ if deal is violated

WASHINGTON/PARIS/KINSHASA: Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year.
The agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by US President Donald Trump’s administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
At a ceremony with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, the two African countries’ foreign ministers signed the agreement pledging to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern Congo within 90 days, according to a copy seen by Reuters.
Kinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.
“They were going at it for many years, and with machetes — it is one of the worst, one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen. And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled,” Trump said on Friday, ahead of the signing of the deal in Washington.
“We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They’re so honored to be here. They never thought they’d be coming.”
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the agreement a turning point. Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said it must be followed by disengagement.
Trump later met both officials in the Oval Office, where he presented them with letters inviting Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to Washington to sign a package of agreements that Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, dubbed the “Washington Accord.”
Nduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged.
Trump warned of “very severe penalties, financial and otherwise,” if the agreement is violated.
Rwanda has sent at least 7,000 soldiers over the border, according to analysts and diplomats, in support of the M23 rebels, who seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier this year.
The gains by M23, the latest cycle in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, sparked fears that a wider war could draw in Congo’s neighbors.

Economic deals
Boulos told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace agreement and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.
Rubio said on Friday that heads of state would be “here in Washington in a few weeks to finalize the complete protocol and agreement.”
However, the agreement signed on Friday gives Congo and Rwanda three months to launch a framework “to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains.”
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that another agreement on the framework would be signed by the heads of state at a separate White House event at an unspecified time.
There is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha — a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 — is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.
The agreement signed on Friday voiced “full support” for the Qatar-hosted talks.
It also says Congo and Rwanda will form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed last year to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months.
Congolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe. Reuters reported on Thursday that Congolese negotiators had dropped an earlier demand that Rwandan troops immediately leave eastern Congo, paving the way for the signing ceremony on Friday.
Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.
Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including the FDLR.
“This is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws,” said Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who specializes in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Similar formulas have been attempted before, Stearns added, and “it will be up to the US, as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms.”
The agreement signed on Friday says Rwanda and Congo will de-risk mineral supply chains and establish value chains “that link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US and US investors.”
The terms carry “a strategic message: securing the east also means securing investments,” said Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at Congo’s Ebuteli research institute.
“It remains to be seen whether this economic logic will suffice” to end the fighting, he added.


South Korea seeks to become 4th-largest global defense power, President Lee says

South Korea seeks to become 4th-largest global defense power, President Lee says
Updated 9 sec ago

South Korea seeks to become 4th-largest global defense power, President Lee says

South Korea seeks to become 4th-largest global defense power, President Lee says
  • South Korea ranked 10th in arms sales as of 2023, according to SIPRI's top 100 arms companies data
  • Arms have become one of South Korea’s fastest-growing exports, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Monday the country will devote a “larger-than-expected budget” in defense and aerospace research until 2030 as it seeks to build the world’s fourth-largest defense industry. Lee was speaking at South Korea’s largest-ever arms fair, the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2025, where firms showed off new unmanned and artificial intelligence-enhanced weapons from howitzers to suicide drones in pursuit of more global defense sales.
South Korea ranked 10th in arms sales as of 2023, according to data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) top 100 arms companies data.
“Being one of the top four powerhouses in the defense industry is by no means an impossible dream,” Lee said.
“We will establish technological sovereignty by focusing investment on the development of technologies, parts, and materials that must be secured independently, such as special semiconductors in the defense sector.”
To its overseas defense partners, South Korea pledges to share not only its weapons systems but also “the technology and experience of building an industrial foundation,” Lee added.
Arms have become one of South Korea’s fastest-growing exports, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, inking multibillion-dollar deals selling everything from howitzers and ammunition to missiles and warships around the world.


Bolivia elects center-right president, ending two decades of socialism

Bolivia elects center-right president, ending two decades of socialism
Updated 20 October 2025

Bolivia elects center-right president, ending two decades of socialism

Bolivia elects center-right president, ending two decades of socialism
  • Weary voters snubbed the Movement Toward Socialism party founded by former president Evo Morales 
  • Winning candidate Rodrigo Paz has vowed a “capitalism for all” approach to economic reform amid the country's worst crisis 

LA PAZ: Bolivians on Sunday elected a pro-business center-right senator as their new president, ending two decades of socialist rule that have left the South American nation deep in economic crisis.
With 97 percent of ballots counted, Rodrigo Paz had 54.5 percent of the vote compared to 45.4 percent for his rival, right-wing former interim president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) said.
Paz, the 58-year-old son of a former president, has vowed a “capitalism for all” approach to economic reform, with decentralization, lower taxes and fiscal discipline mixed with continued social spending.
With dollars and fuel in short supply and annual inflation at more than 20 percent, weary voters snubbed the Movement Toward Socialism party founded by former president Evo Morales in a first electoral round in August.
Bolivia is enduring its worst economic crisis in decades, with long queues now a common sight at gas stations.
“We hope the country improves,” homemaker Maria Eugenia Penaranda, 56, said, bundled up against the cold as she cast her vote in La Paz, about 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) above sea level.
“We cannot make ends meet. There is a lot of suffering. Too much,” she told AFP.

 

Sunday’s election closes out an economic experiment marked by initial prosperity funded by Morales’s nationalization of gas reserves.
The boom was followed by bust, notably critical shortages of fuel and foreign currency under outgoing leader Luis Arce.
Successive governments under-invested in the country’s hydrocarbons sector, once the backbone of the economy.
Production plummeted and Bolivia almost depleted its dollar reserves to sustain a universal subsidy for fuel that it also cannot afford to import.

Patience ‘running out’ 

Analyst Daniela Osorio of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies told AFP that Bolivians’ patience was running out.
Once the election is over, she warned, “if the winner does not take measures to help the most vulnerable, this could lead to a social uprising.”
Paz faces an uphill task, inheriting an economy in recession, according to the World Bank.

He had promised to maintain social programs while stabilizing the economy, but economists have said the two things are not possible at the same time.
Like Quiroga, Paz also proposed cutting the universal fuel subsidy, keeping it only for public transportation.

‘Difficult to heal’ 

“If the people of Bolivia grant me the opportunity to be president,” Paz said as he voted Sunday, “my format will be that of consensus.”
Paz will not have a party majority in Congress, meaning he will need to make concessions to get laws passed.
Outside of Congress, the new president will also face stiff opposition from Morales, who remains popular especially among Indigenous Bolivians, but was constitutionally barred from seeking another term.
On Sunday, Morales told reporters the two candidates each represent only “a handful of people in Bolivia, they do not represent the popular movement, much less the Indigenous movement.”
Morales is the target of an arrest warrant for human trafficking over an alleged sexual relationship with a minor — an accusation he denies.
Arce is due to leave office on November 8 after serving a single presidential term that began in 2020.
Bolivia’s constitution allows for two terms, but he did not seek reelection.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (1200 GMT) and closed eight hours later. Nearly eight million people were eligible to cast ballots and voting is mandatory.
 


It took only 4 minutes for thieves to steal crown jewels from Louvre Museum in Paris, say officials

It took only 4 minutes for thieves to steal crown jewels from Louvre Museum in Paris, say officials
Updated 20 October 2025

It took only 4 minutes for thieves to steal crown jewels from Louvre Museum in Paris, say officials

It took only 4 minutes for thieves to steal crown jewels from Louvre Museum in Paris, say officials
  • Thieves bypassed security by using a basket lift via the riverfront facade, forcing a window open, and opening glass display cases using power tools
  • The daylight heist about 30 minutes after opening, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory

PARIS: In a minutes-long strike Sunday inside the world’s most-visited museum, thieves rode a basket lift up the Louvre‘s facade, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels, officials said.
The daylight heist about 30 minutes after opening, with visitors already inside, was among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory and comes as staff complained that crowding and thin staffing are straining security.
The theft unfolded just 250 meters (270 yards) from the Mona Lisa, in what Culture Minister Rachida Dati described as a professional “four-minute operation.”
One object, the emerald-set imperial crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugénie, containing more than 1,300 diamonds, was later found outside the museum, French authorities said. It was reportedly recovered broken.
Images from the scene showed confused tourists being steered out of the glass pyramid and adjoining courtyards as officers closed nearby streets along the Seine.
A lift — which officials say the thieves brought and which was later removed — stood against the Seine-facing façade, their entry route and, observers said, a revealing weakness: that such machinery could be brought to a palace-museum unchecked.
 

French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on October 19, 2025. (AFP)

A museum already under strain
Around 9:30 a.m., several intruders forced a window, cut panes with a disc cutter and went straight for the glass display cases, officials said. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the crew entered from outside using a basket lift via the riverfront facade to reach the hall with the 23-item royal collection.
Their target was the gilded Apollon Gallery, where the Crown Diamonds are displayed, including the Regent, the Sancy and the Hortensia.
The thieves smashed two display cases and fled on motorbikes, Nunez said. No one was hurt. Alarms brought Louvre agents to the room, forcing the intruders to bolt, but the theft was already done.
Eight objects were taken, according to officials: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugénie’s diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch — a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.
“It’s a major robbery,” Nunez said, noting that security measures at the Louvre had been strengthened in recent years and would be reinforced further as part of the museum’s upcoming overhaul plan. Officials said security upgrades include new-generation cameras, perimeter detection, and a new security control room. But critics say the measures come far too late.

The Louvre closed for the rest of Sunday for the forensic investigation to begin as police sealed gates, cleared courtyards and shut nearby streets along the Seine.
Daylight robberies during public hours are rare. Pulling one off inside the Louvre with visitors present ranks among Europe’s most audacious in recent history, and at least since Dresden’s Green Vault museum in 2019.
It also collides with a deeper tension the Louvre has struggled to resolve: swelling crowds and stretched staff. The museum delayed opening during a June staff walkout over overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions say mass tourism leaves too few eyes on too many rooms and creates pressure points where construction zones, freight routes and visitor flows meet.
Security around marquee works remains tight — the Mona Lisa sits behind bulletproof glass in a climate-controlled case — but Sunday’s theft also underscored that protections are not uniformly as robust across the museum’s more than 33,000 objects.

This picture shows the "Gallerie d'Apollon" ("Apollo's Gallery") on January 14, 2020 at the Louvre museum in Paris after the reopening of the Gallery following ten months of renovations. (AFP)

The theft is a fresh embarrassment for a museum already under scrutiny.
“How can they ride a lift to a window and take jewels in the middle of the day?” said Magali Cunel, a French teacher from near Lyon. “It’s just unbelievable that a museum this famous can have such obvious security gaps.”
The Louvre has a long history of thefts and attempted robberies. The most famous came in 1911, when the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia and recovered two years later in Florence. Another notorious episode came in 1956, when a visitor hurled a stone at her world-famous smile, chipping paint near her left elbow and hastening the move to display the work behind protective glass.
Today the former royal palace holds a roll call of civilization: Leonardo’s Mona Lisa; the armless serenity of the Venus de Milo; the Winged Victory of Samothrace, wind-lashed on the Daru staircase; the Code of Hammurabi’s carved laws; Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People; Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa. The objects — from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the classical world to Europe’s masters — draw a daily tide of up to 30,000 visitors even as investigators now begin to sweep those gilded corridors for clues.
 

This photograph shows the "parure de la reine Marie-Amelie et de la Reine Hortense" (set of jewelry of Queen Marie-Amelie and Queen Hortense) displayed at Apollon's Gallery on January 14, 2020 at the Louvre museum in Paris. (AFP)

Politics at the door
The heist spilled instantly into politics. Far-right leader Jordan Bardella used it to attack President Emmanuel Macron, weakened at home and facing a fractured parliament.
“The Louvre is a global symbol of our culture,” Bardella wrote on X. “This robbery, which allowed thieves to steal jewels from the French Crown, is an unbearable humiliation for our country. How far will the decay of the state go?”
The criticism lands as Macron touts a decade-long “Louvre New Renaissance” plan — about €700 million ($760 million) to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Mona Lisa a dedicated gallery by 2031. For workers on the floor, the relief has felt slower than the pressure.
What we know — and don’t
Forensic teams are examining the site of the crime and adjoining access points while a full inventory is taken, authorities said. Officials have described the haul as of “inestimable” historical value.
Recovery may prove difficult. “It’s unlikely these jewels will ever be seen again,” said Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds. “Professional crews often break down and re-cut large, recognizable stones to evade detection, effectively erasing their provenance.”
Key questions still unanswered are how many people took part in the theft and whether they had inside assistance, authorities said. According to French media, there were four perpetrators: two dressed as construction workers in yellow safety vests on the lift, and two each on a scooter. French authorities did not immediately comment on this.
Investigators are reviewing CCTV from the Denon wing and the riverfront, inspecting the basket lift used to reach the gallery and interviewing staff who were on site when the museum opened, authorities said.


Russia attacks Ukraine coal mine, second energy site, companies say

Russia attacks Ukraine coal mine, second energy site, companies say
Updated 19 October 2025

Russia attacks Ukraine coal mine, second energy site, companies say

Russia attacks Ukraine coal mine, second energy site, companies say
  • Russian forces launched an attack on a colliery in Dnipropetrovsk region
  • It is the fourth Russian assault in two months on coal mining operations in Ukraine

Russian forces on Sunday attacked a coal mine in southeastern Ukraine and an unidentified energy site in the north near the Russian border, the operators of the sites said, adding to a series of recent assaults on Ukraine’s energy network.
Private Ukrainian energy firm DTEK said Russian forces launched an attack on a colliery in Dnipropetrovsk region. The company said 192 miners were safely brought to the surface, with no injuries.
The company said it was the fourth Russian assault in two months on coal mining operations in Ukraine.
The regional energy company in the northern border region of Chernihiv, Chernihivoblenergo, said an attack there caused extensive damage and cut off electricity to 55,000 users. Emergency crews would restore power in the area once it was safe to do so, it said.
Russian attacks in recent weeks have focused on Ukraine’s power grid and other energy sites.
Power cuts were imposed in many areas in the past week in the aftermath of an attack earlier this month that cut electricity to more than one million consumers.


Bangladesh probes cause of airport fire

Bangladesh probes cause of airport fire
Updated 19 October 2025

Bangladesh probes cause of airport fire

Bangladesh probes cause of airport fire
  • The National Board of Revenue said it had begun assessing the damage, with business groups warning that direct losses and subsequent impacts on trade could run into the millions of dollars

DHAKA: Bangladeshi traders on Sunday assessed heavy losses after a devastating fire tore through the cargo complex of the country’s main international airport, as the government opened an investigation into possible arson.
Firefighters had brought the blaze under control and flight operations resumed late Saturday, airport executive director S. M. Ragib Samad told AFP, after thick black smoke swept across the runway, forcing authorities to briefly suspend flights.
But Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s cargo complex — which stores fabrics, garment accessories, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and other imports — was left in ruins.
The National Board of Revenue said it had begun assessing the damage, with business groups warning that direct losses and subsequent impacts on trade could run into the millions of dollars.
Bangladesh is the world’s second-biggest garment manufacturer, and textile and garment production accounts for about 80 percent of exports.
“We have started our assessment,” NBR official Moshiur Rahman told AFP.
The fire was intense, with 37 firefighting units and security forces battling the flames for hours. Smoke was still rising from the charred remains on Sunday.
“The fire spread to every corner — I don’t know if any consignment could escape,” said one exhausted firefighter, whose uniform was greyed and hands blackened. 
“We were supposed to deliver the consignments to our clients today. All burnt to ashes, I guess,” said importer Anand Kumar Ghosh, who said he had lost 52 consignments.
Moinul Ahsan, a senior official at the Directorate of Health, said four people had been taken to hospital with minor injuries. 
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.
But the government said it was aware of growing public concern following a string of major fires in recent days -- including in Chittagong’s export processing zone and a chemical and garment factory in Dhaka, where 16 people were killed.