Massad Boulos, a stepfather of Tiffany Trump, seated for a portrait in a hotel in New York on September 4, 2024.
Jeenah Moon / The Washington Post via Getty Images
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Jeenah Moon / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Johannesburg, South Africa – President Trump’s new main adviser for Africa launched his first official trip to the continent on Thursday in the Great Lakes Rich in minerals but in conflict.
In his first judgment, Massad Boulos met Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa, in the midst of speculation surrounding a possible mineral agreement for security.
“You have heard of a mineral agreement. We have examined the DRC’s proposal, and I am happy to announce that the president and I agreed to follow for his development,” said Bolous, according to a statement from the Congolese government.
“I can’t wait to work with President Félix Tshisekedi and his team to establish a deeper relationship that benefits the Congolese and American people, and to stimulate the investment of the American private sector in the DRC, especially in the mining sector, with the common goal of contributing to the prosperity of the two countries,” he added.
On the security situation of the country, he only said: “We want a lasting peace which affirms the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of the DRC.”
Boulos, a Lebanese -American businessman with companies in Nigeria, was appointed TSAR in Africa of the president earlier this week and puts himself on the ground – heading for Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda after the DRC.
Boulos is Trump’s younger girl’s youngest, Tiffany, who is married to her son. He is the second member of the extended family to have obtained a role, after Charles Kushner, the stepfather of Trump’s other daughter, Ivanka, was appointed ambassador to France.
The State Department said that Boulos, who is also a principal advisor to the President of Arab Affairs and the Middle East, would meet heads of state and business leaders to try to advance peace efforts in the DRC and “promote American investment in the private sector in the region”.
The Congolese army fights against the M23 rebels in the east of the country. This year, the rebels have produced significant gains, in particular by entering the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.
Kinshasa, the United States and UN experts, among others, believe that the M23 are supported by neighboring Rwanda and use the conflict to plunder the mineral wealth of the DRC. Rwanda denies it.
The republican presidential candidate and former American president Donald Trump is joined by Massad Boulos, who was recently appointed “principal advisor to the President of Arab Affairs and the Middle East”, during a campaign stop at the Grand Restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, on November 1, 2024.
Brian Snyder / Reuters
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Brian Snyder / Reuters
The DRC is rich in essential critical minerals for the world supply chain such as uranium, cobalt and lithium. The United States rivals in Africa, China, have many investments in the country.
President Tshisekedi, who compared the situation in his country to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, recently mentioned to be open to a mining agreement with the United States, but has not said whether reciprocal problems, such as security insurance, are part of it.
Before Boulos visit, the Congolese government canceled the death sentences of three Americans who were sentenced last year for their involvement in a failed coup attempt. The Americans – Marcel Malanga Malu, Tylor Thomson and Zalman Polun Benjamin – were part of 37 people sentenced to death in September, but have now received a presidential pardon.
Malanga Malu’s father, Christian Malanga, an American national of Congolese origin, would have been the brain behind the May attacks against the presidential palace and the home of an ally of Tshisekedi. He was killed when the attempted putsch was thwarted.
