President Félix Tshisekedi has allegedly gone into an alliance with Russian mercenaries linked to the notorious Wagner group.
Wagner group is a private military company that some countries have designated it as a terrorist group.
The meeting between President Tshisekedi’s representatives occurred a month ago at the Mbinza Hotel in Goma. News of the more than hundred mercenaries from the Wagner group spread like wildfire in the capital of North Kivu.
An operative of the presidency Major General Jerôme Chico Tshitambwe, a former deputy commander in charge of military intelligence, who was promoted last October to Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations arranged private residences rented by the Congolese presidency.
There was a discreet operation which was put into motion soon after the United Nations Security Council lifted any form of embargo on the sale of war weapons to the FARDC.
The relationship between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Felix Tshisekedi’s Congo has taken a new relationship with a suspicion improvement.
Ironically, in 2021, Russia said it delivered “freely” a volume of 160 tonnes of weapons and ammunition to the FARDC. To justify this delivery, the authorities in Kinshasa stated with a confused hypocrisy the principle that each state is free and sovereign in terms of cooperation and that no country could claim the exclusivity of cooperation, the DRC turned to Moscow to equip its army.
It was in this perspective that last summer, taking advantage of his stay in Russia where he participated in the 10th Conference on International Security held from August 15 to 18, Defense Minister Gilbert Kabanda made contacts with some Russian officials. At the time, it was a question of exchanging about the possibility of obtaining modern military equipment from Russia. In this regard, Minister Kabanda spoke with Alexander Fomin, Russian Deputy Minister of Defence.
Gilbert Kabanda also had an interview with Anatoly Punchuk, Regional Director of Cooperation. On Friday, August 19, on the sidelines of this international conference where he was invited by his counterpart Sergei Shoigu, the Congolese Minister of Defence declared: “The Russian Federation, as a good friend, has always refrained from blackmailing us, blame or subjective sanctions.”
The east part of Congo has been subject of war with Rwanda accused of sponsoring M23.
