United States President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday, the White House has announced.

Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters that DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda President Paul Kagame will sign a “historic peace and economic agreement that [Trump] brokered”.

The event comes after the foreign ministers of the two African nations signed a preliminary peace agreement and economic pact at a White House event in June. After months of talks, they met in Qatar in November and signed a framework with the ultimate goal of putting an end to years of fighting.

M23 rebels have fought the DRC government in North Kivu province for over a decade, in a conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The rebels, among more than 100 groups operating in eastern DRC, are made up primarily of ethnic Tutsi, who were targeted by the Hutu in Rwanda.

The group resurged in 2021 with the alleged support of Rwanda. Kigali has denied working directly with the M23, instead saying Rwandan forces have acted in self-defence against the DRC’s military and ethnic Hutu fighters in the porous border region.

Thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the violence, which surged during an offensive at the beginning of this year that saw the M23 seize two of the DRC’s largest cities.

Fighting has continued sporadically as the truce talks have progressed.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that at least 319 civilians were killed in North Kivu province by “M23 fighters, aided by members of the Rwanda Defence Force” in July, shortly after the initial White House deal.

In Doha, Qatar, the two sides signed two of eight implementation protocols, including a provision on ceasefire monitoring and another on prisoner exchange.

Other protocols related to a timeline, details of humanitarian aid delivery, and the return of displaced people had yet to be agreed on.

Other unresolved issues at the time included restoring state authority, implementing economic reforms, reintegration of armed groups into the government, and the elimination of foreign groups.

A DRC presidential spokesperson told the Associated Press news agency in November that any agreement must assure the “territorial integrity” of the country.

Despite the lingering questions, Trump has repeatedly claimed the conflict as one of several he has helped end since taking office in January.