From the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ukraine to the escalating genocide in Palestine, the Trump administration is causing greater instability and displacement
Geostrategic Analysis
United States President Donald Trump has been requesting that he be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize when the international climate is becoming far more dangerous with the existence of geopolitical conflicts and heightening tensions domestically.
In recent months, the White House has championed its efforts to bring about “peace agreements” in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have engaged in violent interventions in North and South Kivu.
Yet the fighting in the DRC has worsened in the aftermath of staged press conferences with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Ministers Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner and Olivier Nduhungirehe of the DRC and Rwanda. Trump envoys who have no expertise in African affairs grossly misled the public into believing that these documents signed exchanging security arrangements for access to critical resources would benefit the peoples of the U.S. and Central Africa.
The reality is that the DRC has been a source of natural resources and labor theft for more than a century-and-a-half. Belgian colonialism has been cited as one of the worst forms of human degradation and mass murder resulting in an estimated ten million deaths between 1876-1908.
With the complicity of successive U.S. administrations from President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the present period, the genuine independence of Congo has been thwarted and subverted by international finance capital, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon. The existence of vast natural resources in the eastern DRC and the failure of the multinational corporations to develop the area based upon the interests of its people has spawned poverty, joblessness and instability.
These social conditions serve as breeding grounds for rebel groupings such as M23 and many others. Nonetheless, the activities of these insurgents only serve to foster continuing underdevelopment and provide a rationale for imperialist interventions in the form of financing rebels along with diplomatic maneuvers which only benefit the status of the U.S.
Just weeks after the White House boasted of resolving the conflict between M23 rebels and the DRC government based in Kinshasa, the insurgents are now refusing to sign the final documents which were largely drafted by the State Department. The delay in this stage of the purported “peace deal” is occurring as violence has escalated.
Although the final papers were slated to be signed by M23 on August 18, a report reprinted by the Times of India taken from the German-based Deutsche Welle, notes:
“Yet early this week, M23 representatives were nowhere to be found at the negotiating table in Qatar. In a statement on Sunday, the M23 movement claimed that only the full implementation of the Doha Declaration of Principles, including the release of prisoners, would allow them to participate in the next round of talks. Currently, M23 largely controls the two eastern provinces of North and South Kivu. To further complicate matters, new reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International allege that M23 rebels killed nearly 140 people in July. The two reports also accuse M23 and other militia groups of committing widespread sexual abuses in eastern Congo.” (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/drc-conflict-is-the-peace-deal-with-m23-faltering/articleshow/123421631.cms)
These difficulties are a direct result of the misrepresentation of the actual conditions prevailing on the ground in the eastern DRC. The Trump White House is more concerned about its appearance as it attempts to project an image of effectiveness in foreign policy.
Trump ran for a second term of office under the guise that the economy would improve in the U.S. What has actually occurred is a rapidly accelerating uncertainty which has been fueled by the erratic imposition of tariffs and Congressional actions which are transferring trillions of dollars from the working class and impoverished to the most-wealthy interests in the U.S.
In the same article mentioned above, it emphasized:
“The conflict has killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, according to the UN. While peace negotiations are ongoing between the Kinshasa government and the M23, other smaller rebel groups have continued attacks in eastern DRC. The M23 is merely one of around 100 or so armed groups fighting in the mineral-rich eastern Congo region. ADF rebels, backed by the extremist ‘Islamic State’ group, killed at least 52 civilians in the Beni and Lubero areas of eastern DRC in recent days, UN and local officials reported.”
The DRC, in order to realize a just peace, must break with its dependence on the imperialist states and reach out to its Rwandan neighbors to do the same. There must be African solutions to the problems of the region which cannot be imposed through neo-colonial schemes which only further oppressed the masses of the people.
Trump Summit with Putin in Alaska Only Fuels the War
A much media-touted meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump in Alaska on August 15 failed to achieve a ceasefire while only leading to more fighting. Despite the hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars sent to Ukraine to continue the war aimed at integrating Kyiv into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Russian military is continuing to gain ground.
While Trump announces that he is attempting to arrange a direct meeting between Putin and Ukraine President Volodymir Zelensky, Russian forces are launching intensified ground assaults and drone attacks. After claiming during his campaign in 2024 that he could end the Russian Special Military Operations within twenty-four hours, it has now been seven months since the administration took office and there is no end in sight to the war.
According to the Kyiv Independent newspaper regarding the events less than one week after the summit in Alaska:
“Explosions were reportedly heard in Rivne Oblast overnight on Aug. 21 as Russia launched bombers and drones, prompting an air raid alert to be issued across all of Ukraine. Three explosions were heard in Rivne Oblast as Russian MiG-31 fighter jets capable of launching Kinzhal ballistic missiles reportedly took off. Rivne Oblast in western Ukraine sits far from the front lines and is located about 304 kilometers (390 miles) west of Kyiv. Meanwhile, drones were flying in the airspace over the outskirts of Kyiv, the city’s military administration reported at 3:48 a.m. local time. Air defenses were operating in Ukraine’s capital amid the Russian attack, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported at 3:55 a.m.” (https://kyivindependent.com/explosions-heard-in-rivne-oblast-as-russia-launches-bombers-prompting-nationwide-aerial-alert/)
Consequently, the White House has been exposed for its distortions of these developments in Ukraine. The strategic interests of Moscow are clearly more in line with the states which make up the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa plus (BRICS) Summit. These combined governments represent more than half of the world’s population.
Genocide in Palestine Intensifies
On August 21, the Israeli occupation forces moved forward in its latest offensive aimed at the further dispersal and mass killings of the people living in Gaza. The Israeli military reportedly attacked areas outside of Gaza City using artillery and aerial bombardments.
These attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza and the heightened assaults by the settlers in the West Bank are taking place with the complicity of the Trump administration. The U.S. continues to transfer weapons to the Israeli regime while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acts with impunity.
However, the Palestinian resistance has not let up in its defensive measures against the occupation forces. A report on the situation amid the zionist offensive published by the Lebanese-based Al Mayadeen Television said:
“The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, announced that its forces successfully shelled a gathering of Israeli soldiers and vehicles in the vicinity of the al-Rantisi Mosque in the Ma’n area, south of Khan Younis, with several mortar shells on Wednesday. Meanwhile, al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, released footage of a coordinated ambush, carried out jointly with the al-Qassam Brigades, which targeted enemy armored vehicles with explosives and anti-tank shells east of the al-Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. In a related development, the al-Qassam Brigades announced on August 20 that its fighters had carried out an extensive raid operation targeting a recently established Israeli military position southeast of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.” (https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/palestinian-fighters-target-israeli-soldiers–vehicles-in-ga)
Therefore, despite the claims of the White House, their imperialist schemes seeking to obliterate the resistance in Palestine and to reverse the military gains made by the Russian Federation in Ukraine have not succeeded. In the DRC, the machinations of the State Department are only resulting in more turmoil and suffering among the African masses.
Until the U.S. comes to grips with its declining influence internationally, there cannot be any hope for world peace. The peoples of the world committed to the eradication of imperialist war provide the only solution to the escalating threat of further international instability and dislocation.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
