They disembarked buses and gathered in a long line at Rwanda’s Kigali International Airport. Some wore stern expressions, others laughed and made small talk. Some appeared to be in their 20s, others looked middle-aged. Most wore beards.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo hired these Romanian mercenaries to help secure the country’s restive eastern region, where the M23 rebel group has made a violent resurgence. They were flying back home in early February, a couple of days after the M23 seized Goma, capital of the North Kivu province, following a bloody battle.
One of the mercenaries told Rwandan newspaper New Times that he had worked for a private company for more than a decade and had been deployed to DRC for two years as a military trainer.
“I only work with military, which the highest rank was Lieutenant, Corporal, or something like that,” said the man, who spoke anonymously. “As a trainer, being employed by a private military company, I was involved in training the government military to teach someone to do something. I think, yes, I did my job on my part. When M23 [were] approaching Goma, OK, we seek protection from the U.N. [United Nations] in Goma.”
Another mercenary said he has a medical degree and worked in the DRC as an instructor.
“The payment was made by the contract by the one who hired us, and I cannot give you the numbers because it depends on what we were doing,” he told New Times. “The terms were very simple. It’s three months with one month off.”
The mercenaries were among those fortunate to have survived the battle. According to the World Health Organization, 900 bodies were recovered from Goma’s streets, about 3,000 people were injured and thousands forced to flee the North Kivu province.
“The human toll is staggering,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “We and our partners are struggling to assess the full extent of the situation.”
The Romanian mercenaries left as the M23 continued advancing. In early February, the group broke a ceasefire when it seized the South Kivu mining town of Nyabibwe. The town is a commercial hub more than halfway between Goma and Bukavu, capital of South Kivu.
“There have been clashes since 5 a.m., and it was at 9 a.m. that the town fell into the hands of the rebels,” a civil society representative anonymously told Reuters. “They’re in the center of the town at the moment.”
Between January 26 and February 12, more than 3,000 people were killed in the fighting, 2,880 injured, and more than 500,000 displaced, adding to the 6.4 million people already internally displaced, the U.N. reported.
From Nyabibwe, the M23 engaged Congolese forces in Lubero, administrative center of North Kivu’s Lubero Territory, in mid-February. After breaching the defensive line of Congolese forces in Ihusi, the rebels advanced towards the South Kivu town of Katana, 11 kilometers from Bukavu’s airport, which the rebels seized on February 14.
The M23’s presence in the DRC has been a longtime source of tension between the DRC and Rwanda, which is accused of backing the rebels. Kigali denies this.
As the Romanian mercenaries departed in early February, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said the DRC’s recruitment and use of European mercenaries violated a 1977 Organization of African Unity convention and a 1989 United Nations convention.
At least 20 peacekeepers, including 14 from South Africa, have been killed in the fighting between the M23 and Congolese forces, according to Anadolu Agency.
