GOMA, Congo — Congo and Rwanda have submitted a draft peace proposal as part of a U.S.-led process that could end fighting in resource-rich eastern Congo, a U.S. official said Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa and the Middle East, Massad Boulos, said on social media that he welcomed the draft text “received from both (Congo) and Rwanda,” calling it “an important step.”

Details of the draft were not immediately clear, including whether it offers to ease U.S. access to the region’s critical minerals — something Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has mentioned in return for U.S. help in calming the hostilities.

The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized the strategic city of Goma, followed by the city of Bukavu in February. The fighting has killed some 3,000 people and raised the fears of a wider regional war. The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including 100,000 who fled homes this year.

— The Associated Press