Western diplomats are deeply worried about the sudden appearance of Eastern European mercenaries in the volatile eastern Congo. Despite denials by Kinshasa, rumors abound that it hired the notorious Russian Wagner Group.
Located on an unpaved side street near the international airport of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),the Hotel Mbiza usually caters to businesspeople or government delegations from the capital, Kinshasa. But since around Christmas of 2022, white military personnel from Eastern Europe have fully booked the hotel.
“There are dozens, maybe even a hundred white men in uniform,” a local journalist said. He asked for anonymity for security reasons. “They wear a variety of uniforms with no national flags, and pistols on belts,” he said.
The journalist added that soldiers of the Congolese presidential guard closely guarded the hotel entrance. They told him foreigners had booked all the rooms for an extended period. “It is now the headquarters of the whites,” explained a soldier at the entrance, who refused to say more.
