JOHANNESBURG—Congo and Rwanda have now signed a U.S.-brokered agreement that could end almost 30 years of war in Central Africa, igniting a race for access to vast reserves of critical minerals and precious metals.
The United States is after Congo’s resources, which include cobalt, tantalum, and lithium. These are essential to the global energy transition to electric power and are used in electronics, such as computers and cell phones, as well as in the production of weapons and military equipment.
