War-Torn Congo Has a Deal for Trump: Kick Out Rebels, Get Minerals
U.S. president’s ally Erik Prince in separate talks to help embattled Congolese government
“… In a Feb. 8 letter to Trump, Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, offered mining opportunities for the U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund, an entity Trump had launched a few days earlier.
“Your election has ushered in the golden age for America,” Tshisekedi wrote in the letter, which has been seen by The Wall Street Journal.
“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.”
In exchange, Tshisekedi asked Trump for a “formal security pact” to help his army defeat M23, a Rwandan-backed rebel group that recently routed Congolese soldiers, United Nations troops and private mercenaries and
seized key cities in Congo’s mineral-rich east.
The Congolese letter didn’t specify what kind of military backing it wants from the U.S. A White House official said it doesn’t “provide details on the private correspondence to the president.”
The offer comes at the same time Tshisekedi is in negotiations with Erik Prince, a Trump ally who founded the controversial private-military company then called Blackwater.
If the talks succeed, Prince would help the Congolese government collect and secure taxes from mining operations, according to Congolese and Western officials. …”