DR Congo’s failed gamble on Romanian mercenaries

“When they arrived, everyone referred to them as Russian,” Fiston Mahamba, co-founder of disinformation group Check Congo, told the BBC.

“I think this was linked to the Russian mercenary group, Wagner with presence in several African countries.”

In fact, Asociatia RALF may also work across Africa – its contract stipulated that it had various “operational locations”, including “Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Guinea”.

The UN experts say that two private military companies were brought on board to bolster its forces in 2022, not long after the M23 had regrouped and begun capturing territory in North Kivu.

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

The first firm that was signed up was Agemira RDC, headed by Olivier Bazin, a French-Congolese national. The experts say the company employed Bulgarian, Belarusian, Georgian, Algerian, French and Congolese nationals.

This outfit was tasked with refurbishing and increasing DR Congo’s military air assets, rehabilitating airports and ensuring the physical security of aircraft and other strategic locations.

A second contract was signed between Congo Protection, a Congolese company represented by Thierry Kongolo, and Asociatia RALF.

According to the UN experts, the contract specified that Asociatia RALF had expertise and extensive experience in the provision of security management services.

It would provide training and instruction to the Congolese troops on the ground by means of a contingent of 300 instructors, many of them Romanians.

When I spoke to Mr Potra in July about the extent of his group’s involvement on the ground and whether it had engaged in fighting, he said: “We have to protect ourselves. If M23 attacks us, they won’t simply say: ‘Oh, you’re just instructors – go home’.”