ROMANIAN MERCENARIES recruited by Congolese President Tshisekedi and Paid Weak Romanian Thugs $5000 To Defend DRC, while Local Soldiers Get $100 Each To Fight Rebel, have surrendered in Droves to Rwandan backed M23 rebels, who took the City of Goma, in Eastern DRC, last week.
News sources revealed that President Felix Tshisekedi paid the failed mercenaries $5000 each to fight rebels in the DRC while local soldiers get $100 for the same job.
Contracts that show that these hired soldiers were being paid around $5,000 (£4,000) a month, while regular military recruits get around $100, or sometimes go unpaid.
The Romanians were contracted to help the army fight the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who say they are fighting to protect the rights of DR Congo’s minority ethnic Tutsis.
It has been a humiliating week for nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries recruited to fight on the side of the army in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Their surrender following a rebel assault on the eastern city of Goma has also shattered the dreams of those who signed up for the job to earn big money.
When the offensive on Goma started on Sunday night, the Romanians were forced to take refuge at a UN peacekeeping base.
“The M23 rebels were supported by troops and state-of-the-art military equipment from Rwanda and managed to reach our positions around the city of Goma,” Constantin Timofti, described as a co-ordinator for the group, told Romanian TVR channel on Monday.
“The national army gave up fighting and we were forced to withdraw.”
Romania’s foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Țărnea told the BBC that “complex” negotiations followed, which saw the M23 hand over the Romanian fighters – whom he described as private employees of the DR Congo government on an army training mission – to Rwanda.
Goma sits right on the border with Rwanda – and the mercenaries were filmed by journalists as they crossed over, surrendering to body searches and other checks.
Before they crossed over, phone footage shows M23 commander Willy Ngoma berating one of the Romanians in French, telling him to sit on the ground, cross his legs and put his hands over his head.
He asked him about his military training – it was with the French Foreign Legion, the Romanian replied.
“They recruited you with a salary of $8,000 a month, you eat well,” Ngoma yelled, pointing out the disparity between that and a Congolese army recruit’s pay.
“We are fighting for our future. Do not come for adventure here,” he warned.