December 2, 2025 – The United Nations is cautiously welcoming a new peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, signed in Washington today under the heavy branding of President Donald Trump – but it pointedly notes that the UN was not directly involved in the talks.

At the UN’s regular press briefing, the spokesperson was pressed on whether the White House had cut New York out of a process where the UN has had “a longstanding role on the ground.”

“This is not an agreement that we are directly involved in,” the spokesperson said, adding that UN colleagues in the region had been “in contact with the US,” and that the organisation welcomes “this positive development towards peace and stability in the Great Lakes.”

The UN went out of its way to stress complementarity, highlighting the African Union’s mediation role, the involvement of Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé and Qatar, and the continuing work of UN peacekeepers and political missions in support of both the new Washington process and the earlier Doha track. What matters, the spokesperson said, is not “the configuration,” but whether there is “actually peace on the ground.”

In Washington, the optics told a different story: President Trump flanked by Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and the DRC’s Félix Tshisekedi at the newly rebranded Donald J. Trump Institute for Peace, celebrating the so-called Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity as a “historic” breakthrough that ends decades of bloodshed in eastern Congo.

According to U.S. and international reporting, the accord commits Rwanda to withdraw its forces and halt support for the M23 rebel group, while Kinshasa pledges to neutralise the FDLR and other militias operating near the Rwandan border. The agreement also folds in earlier frameworks signed in June, and is paired with bilateral economic deals giving the United States preferred access to critical minerals – cobalt, tantalum, lithium and other resources that have long fuelled conflict in the region.

Trump and his allies are framing the deal as proof he can deliver in months what multilateral diplomacy has struggled with for decades. A recent White House article touting his Ukraine summit casts the DRC–Rwanda track as part of a broader record of “cleaning up” global wars and restoring “peace through strength.”

But even as the leaders signed in Washington, fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels continued around key eastern cities, and rights advocates warned that economic interests risk overshadowing justice and accountability for atrocities informed a report from Reuters and the Associated Press (AP).

That tension – between Trump’s highly personalised, bilateral style and the slower, rules-based multilateralism of the UN – was on display in the briefing room. Journalists pushed the UN to say whether it should have been more closely consulted. The spokesperson refused to bite, repeating that every peace effort has its own shape, and suggesting the UN will judge the Washington Accords not by the ceremony, but by whether guns go quiet in North Kivu and Ituri.

For now, the UN is standing slightly to the side of the cameras, signalling that it won’t compete with Washington’s moment – but it also won’t take ownership of a deal it didn’t design.

Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.

By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media

October 14, 2025 – I watched the people, by the hundreds, walk the dusty strip that led back to their home in Gaza. We all knew, as they did, they were heading into hollowed-out neighbourhoods — debris, shattered glass, skeletal walls — reminders of years of despair.

But there was something else too: a buoyancy in their stride, a glimmer in their eyes. The Mediterranean glistened, still impossibly beautiful. The people — strong, proud, indomitable — moved as though carrying both grief and grace in equal measure.

In that moment, I realized this was more than diplomacy. More than the signing of a historic document in distant halls of marble and microphones. This was humanity rediscovering itself — a world beginning to understand that beyond geography and faith and politics, we are all human beings, bound by the same elemental truths: emotion, desire, hope, dream, and love.

It was not politicians who brokered this new peace, but visionaries who remembered the simplicity of service — that peace, like business, depends on relationships, trust, and respect. Perhaps it took a businessman to remind the world that excellence in service to humanity means meeting people’s needs with empathy, not ideology.

The Trump Peace Agreement, signed in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, brought to a close more than two years of suffering and opened, in the words of the signatories, “a new chapter for the region defined by hope, security, and prosperity.” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who hosted the summit, called it “the dawn of renewal — not only for Gaza, but for how we see one another.”

Under the accord, 20 living hostages held in Gaza have been freed and reunited with their families, marking the end of one of the most painful sagas of the conflict. In addition, the agreement mandates the return of 28 deceased hostages, with four sets of remains already handed over. The deal also includes the release of thousands of Palestinian detainees, allowing families long separated by war to embrace again — mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives.

For the first time in decades, the streets of Gaza and Tel Aviv echoed the same sound — weeping and relief.

The agreement’s language was strikingly human: a shared vision of “tolerance, dignity, and equal opportunity for every person,” where faith is not a dividing line but a moral compass. It pledges to protect sacred sites across Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, recognizing that this narrow strip of land carries deep spiritual meaning for much of humanity.

The declaration also commits to dismantling extremism “in all its forms,” replacing radicalization with education, opportunity, and respect. In a time when rage had become routine, the world seemed to pause — if only for a moment — to breathe again.

Observers call it a diplomatic miracle; others see divine timing. But either way, this peace feels different — grounded in the recognition that people cannot be endlessly broken without consequence. The Muslim and Arab world, long accused of intolerance, appears to be turning a page: moving from rejection to reconciliation, from ideology to empathy.

For a generation raised on images of rockets, ruins, and rage, the simple act of dialogue has reclaimed its power. The leaders who signed the document — Donald J. Trump, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — pledged to resolve future disputes through negotiation, not war.

Standing before the Knesset in Jerusalem the following day, President Trump declared,

“This peace will not end with signatures. It will endure through every handshake, every investment, and every act of mercy that follows. Peace is not an event — it is a way of life.”

And as I watched the people of Gaza — battered, barefoot, but unbroken — I couldn’t help but believe that this time, maybe, the world has finally begun to live that truth.

We have not just reached peace; we have rediscovered the tapestry God Himself has woven — of difference, dignity, and divine connection — the beauty of being human.

Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.