Failed gambling game of e -Congo on Romanian mercenaries

It was a humiliating week for nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries hired to fight the army side in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Their transmission after a rebellious attack on the Eastern city of Goma also destroyed the dreams of those who registered for the work to earn big money.

The BBC has seen contracts showing that these hired soldiers have been paid about $ 5,000 (£ 4,000) a month, while regular military recruits receive about $ 100 or sometimes remain unpaid.

The Romanians were agreed to help the army fight the Rwanda-supported M23 rebels, who say they were fighting to protect the rights of Dr. Congo's ethnic tuts.

When Goma's offensive began on Sunday night, Romanians were forced to convince themselves at the UN peacekeeping base.

“The M23 rebels were supported by troops and state-of-the-art Rwanda military equipment and managed to reach their positions around the city of Goma,” Konstantin Timophti told the group coordinator, “TVR channel told Monday.

“The National Army gave up fighting and we were forced to withdraw.”

Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei țrnea told the BBC that “complex” negotiations followed that M23 saw the Romanian fighters – which he described as private officials of the Government of the Congo of an Army Training Mission – in Rwanda.

Goma sits right on the border with Rwanda – and the mercenaries were filmed by journalists as they passed, surrendering to a body search and other checks.

Before crossing, the phone footage shows that M23 commander Will Ngoma beats one of the Romanians in French, telling him to sit on the ground, cross his legs and put his hands over his head.

He asked him about his military training – it was with the French foreign legion, the Romanian replied.

“They hired you with a salary of $ 8,000 a month, you eat well” Ngoma shoutedBringing the discrepancy between this and the payment of the Congoan Army's army.

“We are fighting for our future. Don't come for adventures here,” he warned.

It is not clear where Ngoma received the number of $ 8,000, but the contract shown to the BBC by a former Romanian mercenary in October describes in detail that “strictly confidential remuneration” for senior staff starts at $ 5,000 a month during the active duty and $ 3,000 during periods of leave.

The agreement outlines an “indefinite service period” and the contractors are intended to take a one -month break after every three months deployment.

I had met with former Mergenari in the capital of Romania, Bucharest, where I went to investigate Asociatia Ralf, for which a group of UN experts say it is a Romanian enterprise with “former Rimans of French Foreign Legion”.

He is headed by Humansțiu Potra, a Romanian who describes himself as a military instructor.

In June, while I was in Goma, I had noticed such mercenaries at checkpoints and settled around the city working closely with the army.

Over the past three years, others have announced that they have been seen driving Congoan troops in army vehicles.

“When they arrived, everyone pointed them as Russian,” Fiston Magamba, co -founder of the Congo Disinformation Group, told the BBC.

“I think this was related to the Russian rental group Wagner with a presence in several African countries.”

In fact, Asociatia Ralf can also work throughout Africa – his contract predicts that there are various “operational sites”, including Burkina Faso, D -Congo, Coast D'Ivoire, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea.

UN experts say two private military companies were brought on board to strengthen their powers in 2022, not long after the M23 regroups and began to capture territory in North Kivu.

The province has been unstable for decades with numerous militias working there, making money from its minerals such as gold and coltan – used to make batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones.

The first company to be signed was Agemira RDC, headed by Olivier Bazin, a Franco-Egogonian citizen. Experts say the company used Bulgarian, Belarusian, Georgian, Algerian, French and Congoan citizens.

This clothing was loaded with the repair and increase of military air assets of the Congo, rehabilitated airports and guaranteeing the physical security of aircraft and other strategic places.

A second contract was signed between Congo Protection, a Congress company represented by Thierry Congolo and Asociatia Ralf.

According to UN experts, the contract said that Asociatia RALF has experience and extensive experience in providing security management services.

He would provide training and instructions to Congoan troops on the spot through a contingent of 300 instructors, many of them Romanians.

When I talked to G -n Potra about the degree of participation of his group on the spot and whether she was dealing with battles, he said: “We have to defend ourselves. If the M23 attacks us, they will not say simply: “Oh, you are just instructors – go home. “

D -n Potra was practical during the mission of the Congo until a few months ago when he returned to Romania -and has since been involved in a dispute against the background of the background Canceled presidential election thereS

He was dramatically arrested in December and has since denied providing security for the pro -Russian, far -right candidate Kalin Georgesko. And since October, he has refused to return the BBC calls.

The former Mergenarius, who was at the end of his forties and spoke with the BBC, provided for anonymity, said he resigned as he was dissatisfied with how Asociatia Ralf works.

He said that the Romanians have done much more on Earth in the province of North Kivu: “Only a very small number of us are actually coaches.

“We worked with long shifts for up to 12 hours, keeping key positions outside the Goma.”

He maintains that the pay is not worth the risks that military contractors had to take.

“The missions were unorganized, working conditions poor. Romanians have to stop going there because it is dangerous.”

He also claims that no correct inspections were carried out and some of the Romanian recruits did not have military training – citing as an example that one of his former colleagues was a firefighter.

The Government of D -Congo did not respond to the BBC request for comment on whether the background checks or the non -compliance between the payment between private contractors and the Congoan troops.

The family of Vasile Badea, one of the two Romanians killed last February, when an Army convoy was ambushed by M23 fighters on the way to Sake, the front city near Goma, told the BBC that he was a police officer.

The 46-year-old took Saturday from the forces and took the role in Dr. Congo because of the lucrative salary proposal.

The policeman struggled to pay for an apartment he had just acquired and needed more money.

Many more Romanians were lured by the prospects for a well -paid job.

I met a man in Bucharest in October who returned home, looking for more recruits to go to Goma. He was of military origin and had tour in NATO in Afghanistan with the Romanian army.

“We are very busy trying to find 800 people who need to be mentally prepared for the work and know how to fight,” the mercenary recruiter told the BBC.

He said he didn't work for Asociatia Ralf, but refused to say which toilet he was with.

“The recruits will be placed in positions corresponding to the level of their training, earning between $ 400 and $ 550 a day,” he explained.

When asked about the recruitment process, he emphasized his confidentiality.

“Such jobs are not published anywhere,” he said, adding that networks like WhatsApp are preferred.

He showed me a group of WhatsApp, in which more than 300 Romanians had registered, many of whom were former military officials.

Last June, Rwanda Government spokesman Yoland Macolo struck the presence of mercenaries in East Congo, saying it was a violation of the Geneva conventions, which prohibits the use of hired fighters.

In response, the congoic government spokesman Patrick Muya rejected what he called Rwanda's many years of complaint.

“We have some instructors who come to train our military forces because we know we have this emergency situation,” he told the BBC.

But a Congoan soldier, whom I met in June, expressed horror of the army strategy.

“Pay is unfair. When it comes to battles, we are the ones sent first to the front lines,” he told the BBC, provided for anonymity.

“They (mercenaries) come only as a reserve.”

He confirmed that his payment was determined at about $ 100 a month, but was often delayed or unpaid completely.

For the last time, I was in contact with him a week ago when he confirmed that he was still located in Kibati, near Goma, where the army has a base.

“Things are very bad,” he said in a voice note to me.

Since then, I have not been able to catch him – and since then the Kibati base has been overcome by the M23 with many killed soldiers, including his commander.

Observers say that Goma's rapid fall is pointing to the destroyed defense strategy of the Congo, where the overlapping forces and blurred command lines eventually played in the hands of the M23.

Richard Montcriff, director of the project of the International Crisis Group for Great Lakes, points out that as well as mercenaries, the Congoan army works with troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a local militia known as Wazalendo, and Burundi soldiers.

“This creates a situation where it is impossible to plan war crimes when the command and responsibility chain is blurred,” he told the BBC.

“I think it is important to work for a far more consistency in the armed efforts in North Kiu, probably involving a decrease in the number of armed groups or armed actors on Earth.”

The fate of his former Romanian counterparts is no surprise for the former Mergenar Court.

“The bad command leads to failure,” he told the BBC.