Szlavik is also on retainer with President Félix Tshisekedi in Congo-Kinshasa who has offered the US access to his country's minerals as part of the fragile peace deal with Rwanda brokered by the US to end M23's military incursions in eastern Congo-K (AC Vol 66 No 14 Trump family allies broker security and mining deals in Central Africa)...

Boulos says deals in both sectors will be signed at the White House in July when Presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame are expected to attend a grand ceremony...

Although officially operating alongside the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC) Uganda's General Muhoozi Kainerugaba – son of President Yoweri Museveni – travelled to Kinshasa in June where he met President Félix Tshisekedi to extend bilateral military cooperation...

The prompt for Boulos was a letter that President Félix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa had sent to President Trump in February offering special access to his country's estimated US$3 trillion reserves of critical minerals in return for security guarantees and help in expelling Rwandan troops and their M23 militia allies from Congo-K (AC Vol 66 No 6 Kigali and the M23 militia clear a path for regime change)...

Lourenço may be reluctant to mediate in CAR after the dramatic failure of his mediation between Presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame...

Boulos a Francophone Lebanese whose son Michael Boulos is married to Trump's daughter Tiffany Trump met with Congo-Kinshasa President Félix Tshisekedi on 3 April to discuss prospects for a ceasefire and US investments in the mining sector...

After agreeing contracts with a string of K-Street lobby shops worth close to US$8 million with mandate to broker a mineral access deal with US President Donald Trump's administration President Félix Tshisekedi has made a U-turn sacking them all...

After seizing Goma and Bukavu the capitals of Kivu-Nord and Kivu-Sud respectively in eastern Congo-Kinshasa the M23 and its backers in the Rwandan Defence Force have taken the military initiative and are mulling their next moves – which could further undermine the President Félix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa...

US LOBBYISTS PUSH CRITICAL MINERALS FOR SECURITY DEALS In a Central African version of the new wave of transactional politics Congolese politicians have been hiring Washington lobbyists to persuade President Donald Trump's administration to back President Félix Tshisekedi by offering access to critical minerals and the deepwater port at Banana on Congo-K's Atlantic coast (Dispatches 25/2/25 Tshisekedi inks lobbying deal to bag minerals deal with Trump)...