Dr. Kongo's failed gambling on Roman mercenaries

It was a humiliating week for about 300 Roman mercenaries who were recruited to fight the army side in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They also destroyed their surrender following the rebels' attack on the eastern city of Juma, the dreams of those who participated in the job to earn great money.

BBC witnessed contracts showing that these rented soldiers are paying about $ 5,000 (4000 pounds) per month, while ordinary military recruits get about $ 100, or sometimes without pay.

The Romanians have been contracted to help the army fight the Rwandan -backed M23 rebels, who say they are fighting to protect the rights of Tutsi in the minority of Dr. Kongo.

When the attack on Gouma began on Sunday night, the Romanians were forced to resort to a UN peacekeeping base.

“The M23 rebels were supported by modern military forces and equipment from Rwanda and managed to reach our positions throughout the city of Gouma,” said Constantine Timouoft, who described as a group coordinator. on monday.

“The national army has abandoned the fighting and we had to withdraw.”

Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesman André Arney told the BBC that the “complex” negotiations were followed, which witnessed the hand of Romanian fighters – whom he described as private sector employees in the government of Dr. Congo on the army training mission – to Rwanda.

Ghauma sits directly on the border with Rwanda – mercenaries were photographed by journalists while crossing, and surrendered to the search for body and other tests.

Before they crossed, the shots of the M23 leader, Willie Nagoma, appear connecting one of the Romanian to the French language, asking him to sit on the ground, cross his legs and put his hands on his head.

He asked him about his military training – he was with the French Foreign Corps.

“They recruited you with a salary of $ 8,000 a month, you eat well,” Naguma shoutedNoting the contrast and paying the wages of the Congolese army.

He warned, “We are fighting for our future. Don't come to adventure here.”

It is not clear where NGOMA got $ 8,000, but the contract that was shown by a former Roman mercenary by BBC in October, has started the “strict secret reward” for senior employees at $ 5,000 per month during active service and $ 3000 during leave periods .

The agreement clarifies an “unlimited period” of service, as the contractors are scheduled to take a break for one month after every three months of publication.

I met the previous memory in the capital of Romania, Bucharest, where I went to investigate Asociatia Ralf, in which a group of United Nations experts say it is a Romanian institution with the “former Romanians of the French Foreign Corps”.

He is headed by Horațiu Potra, the Roman who describes himself as a military coach.

In June while you were in Goma, you noticed these mercenaries at checkpoints and published throughout the city, and worked closely with the army.

Over the past three years, others have been reported to see the Congolese forces in the army vehicles.

“When they arrived, everyone referred to them as Russian,” Feston Mhamaba, co -founder of the information disposal group, told BBC.

“I think this is linked to the group of Russian mercenaries, Wagner, with many African countries.”

In fact, Asociatia Ralf may also work all over Africa – its contract stipulates that it has various “operating sites”, including “Burkina Faso, Dr Cono, Ivory Coast, NIGER, Senegal, Sierran, Gambia and Guinea.

UN experts say that two private military companies were brought to support its forces in 2022, after a long period of reassemble M23 and began to capture lands in northern Kivu.

The boycott was not unstable for decades, as many militias that work there to earn money from its minerals such as gold and cholesterned – used to make batteries for electric cars and mobile phones.

The first registered company is Agemira RDC, headed by Olivier Bazin, a French Congolian citizen. Experts say that the company employs the Bulgarian, Ballen, Georgian, Algerian, French and Congolese citizens.

This costume was assigned to renew and increase the assets of Dr. Congo Air Force, and rehabilitate airports and ensure material security of aircraft and other strategic locations.

A second contract was signed between the protection of the Congo, a Kongoli company represented by Terry Congolo and Asociatia Ralf.

According to United Nations experts, the contract determined that Asociatia Ralf has extensive experience and experience in providing security management services.

Training and education will provide Congolese forces on Earth by a group of 300 trainers, and many of them are Romanians.

When I spoke to Mr. Bora in July about the extent of his group's participation on the ground and whether he had participated in the fighting, he said: “We have to protect ourselves. If we attack M23, they will not simply say:” Oh, you are just coaches – return home. “

Mr. Bora was practical during the mission of Dr. Congo even a few months ago when he returned to Romania – and since then he was involved in the middle controversy He canceled the presidential elections there.

He was greatly arrested in December, and he has since denied the provision of security for the pro -Russian candidate, Călin Georgescu. Since October, the BBC calls.

The previous memory, who was in the late 1940s and spoke to the BBC, provided that his identity was not disclosed, that he resigned because he was not satisfied with how Asociatia Ralf works.

He said that the Romanians did a lot on the ground in North Kivu Province: “A very small number of us are only trained.

“We have worked in long -to -up bouts of 12 hours, guarding the main positions outside the Goma.”

He kept that the wage was not worth the risks that military contractors had to carry.

“The tasks were unorganized, and poor working conditions. The Romanians should stop going there because it is dangerous.”

He also claimed that no appropriate tests were conducted for the background, and some Roman recruits had no military training – noting an example that one of his former colleagues was a firefighter.

The government of Dr. Congo did not respond to the British Broadcasting Corporation's request to comment on whether the background checks were made, or about the variation of wages between private contractors and Congolese forces.

The Vasile Badea family, one of two Romanians who were killed last February when M23 fighters were made on his way to the army convoy on its way to Saki, a proposed city near Goma, for the BBC was a police officer.

The 46 -year -old has taken a vacation and took over the role in Dr. Congo due to the profitable salary.

The policeman was struggling to pay the price of an apartment he just gained and needed more money.

Many Romanians have been lured by the prospects for a paid job.

I met a man in Bucharest in October, who had returned home in search of more recruits to go to Goma. He had a military background and made NATO tours in Afghanistan with the Roman army.

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

He said he did not work with Asociatia Ralf, but he refused to say which costume he was with.

“Recruits will be placed in opposite positions of their training level, and he got between 400 to $ 550 a day,” he said.

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

“No jobs were published anywhere,” he said, adding that networks like WhatsApp were preferred.

He showed me a group of WhatsApp as more than 300 Romanian registered, and many of them were former military personnel.

In June of last year, a spokesman for the Rwanda Jewe McCulo government has gone out of the presence of mercenaries in the eastern Congo, saying it was a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the use of tenant fighters.

In response, Congolese government spokesman Patrick Moyaya rejected what he called Rwanda's permanent complaint.

“We have some coaches who come to train our military forces because we know that we have this urgent situation.”

But the Congolese soldier, who met him in June, expressed his dissatisfaction with the army's strategy.

“The reward is not fair. When it comes to fighting, we who sent us to the front lines first,” he told the BBC provided that his identity is not disclosed.

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

He stressed that his salary was identified by about $ 100 a month, but he was often delayed or completely paid.

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

“Things are very bad.”

I have not been able to obtain it since then – and since then the KIBATI base has been overlooked by the M23 with the killing of many soldiers, including its commander.

Observers say that the rapid fall of Juma refers to the defense strategy, Dr. Al -Kasr, as the overlapping forces and unclear leadership lines played in the hands of M23.

In addition to mercenaries, the Congolese army is working with forces from the Southern African Development Society (SADC), a local militia known as Wazalendo, as well as Burundi soldiers.

He told the BBC: “It creates a position in which it is impossible to plan military crimes as the chain of command and responsibility is appealed.”

“I think it is important to work for a much greater cohesion in the armed effort in northern Kivu, and it may have a decrease in the number of armed groups or armed actors on the ground.”

For previous technology, the fate of his former Romanian colleagues was not a surprise.

“The poor leadership leads to failure,” he told the BBC.