Two countries signed a peace deal in Washington. On the ground, little has changed

Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo —

In the heart of Africa, in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, new recruits are being trained for battle.

The scores of militia groups that have fought for three decades in one of the most protracted and complex conflicts in the world are still engaging in deadly fighting, and US President Donald Trump’s claimed peace deal for the nation feels like a distant dream.

The deal, portrayed as a “wonderful treaty” by Trump, was signed by the foreign ministers of Rwanda and DR Congo in Washington on June 27.

However, it has yet to end the wider bloodshed that began after the 1994 Rwandan genocide and is estimated to have killed 6 million people.

“Our aim is to go to Kinshasa,” says Corneille Nangaa, a former election-chief-turned-rebe