Washington DC - Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement Friday in Washington to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerrillas – and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth.

The two foreign ministers signed the deal brokered by the US, Qatar, and the African Union in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who acknowledged there was "more work to be done" but said the deal will let people "now have dreams and hopes for a better life."

This agreement comes after the M23 rebel group, an ethnic Tutsi force widely linked to Rwanda, sprinted across the long-turbulent and mineral-rich east of the DRC earlier this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma.

The deal does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 but calls for Rwanda to end "defensive measures" it has taken.

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Rwanda has denied directly supporting the M23 rebels but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Trump has trumpeted the diplomacy that led to the deal and publicly complained that he has not received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

The Republican president will welcome both foreign ministers to the White House later Friday. Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the US will be able to secure "a lot of mineral rights from the Congo."

The DRC has enormous mineral reserves that include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies, with US rival China now a key player in securing the resources.

Trump, in an uncharacteristic expression of modesty, said that he had been unfamiliar with the conflict as he appeared to allude to the horrors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Tutsis, were killed in just 100 days.

"I'm a little out of my league on that one because I didn't know too much about it. I knew one thing – they were going at it for many years with machetes," Trump said.

Both countries have sought favor with the US. The DRC offered a minerals deal loosely inspired by the Trump administration's minerals agreement with Ukraine.