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Romanian mercenaries surrender to M23

More than 280 Romanian mercenaries fought on the side of the Congolese government army have surrendered to the M23 rebels supported by Rwanda. The Rwandan Ministry of Defense reports on Wednesday afternoon on X that it “received” that group of mercenaries. They are now being transferred to the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Reuters journalists saw on the spot that they crossed the border from Goma to Gisenyi, on the other side of the Rwandean-Congolese border. One of them said that crossing the border was the start of their journey home.

At the border crossing, the suitcases of the mercenaries were checked by sniffing dogs. After a search and control of their travel documents, they boarded buses that have to take them to Kigali.

For the past two years, Kinshasa used European security companies to stop the rise of M23 in the east of the country. According to Internal Congolese sources, it was about mercenaries who belong to two companies.

The first, Congo Protection, is led in Goma by the Romanian Horatiu Potra. The soldiers who are brought to Kigali on Wednesday belong to this group. Potra is also associated with the extreme right-wing and pro-Russian Romanian presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, the surprising winner of the elections that were declared invalid.

In addition, the company-led company Agemira is also active in Eastern Congo. They were initially used for maintenance work for the Congolese Air Force, but later also participated in bombing on M23 positions.

The Romanian mercenaries had resorted to buildings of the UN peace force Monusco at Goma airport. “We were not on a battlefield, we were there for training and the artillery to help,” one of them told AFP.

From Bucharest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already announced that their subjects are being evacuated, and the Ministry promised to take all the measures to “get them out of the danger zone”.