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KALEMIE, DR Congo: US businessman Erik Prince and his mercenaries have emerged as key players in the war-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fighting for its government as Washington vies for strategic minerals in the country, researchers and local sources told AFP.<\/p>\n
Numerous foreign paramilitaries have been seen in the vast, unstable central African country, where locals say they are backing the ill-armed government forces against the M23.<\/p>\n
Officials are not sure in all cases who is employing the foreign personnel. But sources frequently mention the name of Prince, a businessman close to US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Prince is founder of Blackwater \u2014 a military security contractor whose members were convicted of atrocities in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Prince \u201chas established himself as a key player in the DRC\u2019s political-security economy,\u201d according to an investigation published this month by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).<\/p>\n
It described his operations as \u201ca \u2018business-as-security\u2019 model unprecedented in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Fighting and minerals –<\/p>\n
After the anti-government M23 group took the key eastern regional capital Goma in January 2025, its forces were filmed escorting hundreds of Romanian paramilitaries out of the country via Rwanda.<\/p>\n
A US-mediated agreement between the DRC and Rwanda that year was meant to end the fighting in return for US access to minerals.<\/p>\n
The front lines stabilized, but the conflict has not been resolved, with drones playing a major role.<\/p>\n
After paramilitaries failed to help government forces crumbling in the face of the M23\u2019s Rwandan reinforcements, the DRC government abruptly terminated a contract with Agemira, a French-led private military firm, according to a report by UN experts.<\/p>\n
The UN experts said former Agemira personnel were redeployed to Kisangani, an eastern provincial capital a few hundred miles from the front line.<\/p>\n
Their report also signalled the presence of South American military contractors but could not identify who employed them.<\/p>\n
These can be seen on the tarmac at Kisangani\u2019s airport, dressed in green fatigues and carrying out maintenance on military aircraft.<\/p>\n
A source close to the matter told AFP that accommodation for several thousand such personnel had been built in Kisangani.<\/p>\n
UN experts said in their report that Kisangani was serving as a new hub for the deployment of private military companies.<\/p>\n
They are tasked in particular with operating Chinese-made CH-4 drones that regularly strike M23 positions.<\/p>\n
The UN experts did not identify the companies \u2014 but sources have linked the hub to Prince.<\/p>\n
– Drone surveillance –<\/p>\n
In 2024, Prince signed a contract with the Congolese finance ministry worth between $100 million and $200 million, GI-TOC said.<\/p>\n
That deal was officially \u201caimed at assisting the authorities in securing mining sites, improving tax collection mechanisms and curbing cross-border smuggling of minerals,\u201d the group\u2019s report added.<\/p>\n
But it also linked Prince to operations in January 2026 to retake Uvira, a major South Kivu city briefly captured by the M23.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrince\u2019s group is said to have supported Congolese special operations forces and army units with drone surveillance and other technical assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York Times reported on two paramilitaries working for the millionaire, a New Zealander and a former member of the US special forces.<\/p>\n
It said the New Zealander was killed and the US ex-serviceman wounded in an ambush in the area in September.<\/p>\n
The two companies representing Prince\u2019s interests in the DRC, Vectus Global and Quantum Global Consulting, maintain a presence in the national capital Kinshasa, but their executives keep a low profile.<\/p>\n
Contacted by AFP through his various online platforms, Prince did not respond. An AFP request for comment from Vectus Global also went unanswered.<\/p>\n
– Ex-special forces –<\/p>\n
Beside a hotel pool, heavily built Western men stick out in the remote southeastern DRC town of Kalemie.<\/p>\n
Their presence is explained in part by its strategic location, halfway between territory held by M23 forces and the region\u2019s mining belt, according to a Congolese army official, who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n
According to security sources and some of the men by the hotel pool, paramilitaries in the country include Ukrainians, Israelis, South Africans and Algerians.<\/p>\n
Men at the pool presented themselves to AFP as pilots or trainers, in some cases former special forces personnel.<\/p>\n
Some said they previously fought as mercenaries in other African conflicts and openly expressed views of the American alt-right.<\/p>\n
The Congolese army official insisted that the paramilitaries were not combatants but provided no further details.<\/p>\n
He said that even Congolese military personnel struggled to navigate the opaque network of private military companies operating in the DRC.<\/p>\n
In Kalemie, residents and militia members said they were certain of one thing: \u201cAmericans\u201d are fighting alongside the DRC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n