The Foreign Legion Veteran Wanted to Fill the Void Left by the Wagner Group in a Tense Area in Central Africa, but Experienced a Major Failure, Endangering the Lives of Fighters Recruited from Romania.
On August 23, 2023, a private plane exploded in the sky over Russia while traveling at high speed between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
On board the aircraft was Evgheni Prigojin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary army, along with 10 of his associates and crew members. All of them lost their lives.
The explosion occurred exactly two months after Evgheni Prigojin and some of his fighters captured the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia and headed towards Moscow, threatening to overthrow Putin's political regime.
The revolt was quelled 200 kilometers from the capital, following negotiations and guarantees provided to Prigojin through Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus. Shortly after a meeting between Putin and the Wagner troops commander, the latter was eliminated.
That moment marked the decapitation by the Russian president of the most important and powerful paramilitary force meticulously built by the Kremlin since 2008, which had been involved in actions in Donbas, Ukraine, the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, operations in Syria, as well as the creation of a number of intervention forces in Africa, through which Russia regained some influence on the continent lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russia's Influence Wanes in Africa
The threat to Putin was so great that he chose to abandon the Wagner Group rather than accept the opposition posed by Evgheni Prigojin.
Thus, in less than a year and a half, the Kremlin leader helplessly witnessed the collapse of the dictatorial regime of Assad, whom he had militarily supported for over a decade, and was forced to hastily withdraw his armed forces from Syria in the face of the assault by opposition groups.
Moreover, in Africa, Wagner's troops fragmented and lost power due to the lack of funding from the Kremlin. This led to a power shift to other paramilitary groups and the development of new dynamics between many states and groups on the continent.
In this context, a military conflict erupted in Central Africa between the DRC and Rwanda in the Goma area, split in two by the border between the two countries.
M 23 is a paramilitary group unofficially supported and funded by the Rwandan government, aiming to conquer several towns and territories in eastern DRC, including Goma, a city with 2 million inhabitants.
On the other hand, the dictatorial regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been supported in recent years by Russia, both economically and militarily.
The Wagner Group was involved in the DRC until Prigojin's death, participating in battles in the eastern part of the country, according to several reports published over the past few years.
Prigojin's Admirer
Horațiu Potra, a declared supporter of the Kremlin regime and close to the pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu, has been involved in military operations since 2023, funded by the government of the DRC.
Potra led the "Protection Congo" operation, forming a small army of mercenaries, primarily recruited from Romania. The model on which he built his paramilitary group emulates Wagner, with Potra, a Foreign Legion veteran, being an admirer of Prigojin, according to an article published by the Financial Times.
He brought around 1,000 Romanian mercenaries to the DRC over the past two years, for varying lengths of time, with a monthly salary of $8,000 per fighter, according to Reuters.
Congo is a very rich country, but with greedy leaders. They recruited mercenaries for $8,000 a month, while Congolese soldiers receive less than $100...
Willy Ngoma, spokesperson for the M 23 paramilitary forces, to Reuters
At the time of the M 23 paramilitary group's offensive on the city of Goma, around 300 Romanian mercenaries were in the DRC.
The M 23 insurgents, supported by Rwanda, captured Goma, and Potra's fighters became prisoners, suffering a humiliating defeat that put Bucharest's diplomacy in a difficult position.
Potra Aligns with Georgescu
Social media is flooded with images of Romanian mercenaries taken prisoner, loaded onto buses, and sent back to the country following interventions by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"I have no pity for them. They are criminals. They kill for money. In my opinion, they can die in agony," wrote a person on the X network, commenting on a report about the dramatic situation of the Romanian fighters.
The post is representative of the public opinion's condemnation in the country towards those who enlisted to fight in Africa, with the tragic situation tarnishing the image that Horațiu Potra tried to promote in his attempt to create a Romanian version of the Wagner Group.
Additionally, the 55-year-old Foreign Legion veteran has also been involved in national politics, providing security for candidate Călin Georgescu.
Immediately after the cancellation of the presidential elections last December, Potra was questioned by the police for attempting to organize a violent protest in Bucharest, aiming to sow disorder and tension following the controversial decision of the Constitutional Court.
VIDEO. A clip from a Facebook post by Horațiu Potra in which he vehemently criticizes Romania's decision to support Ukraine in resisting Russia's invasion, armed and making violent gestures - Source: Facebook/ Horațiu Potra
A Tragedy Averted
The humiliation in Congo, the danger to which he exposed his "employees," and the diplomatic crisis resulting from his affairs will leave him with even less room for maneuver, as the entire world watches him closely.
Horațiu Potra closed all his social media accounts, although he was extremely active before the elections, being a staunch supporter of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
In many images and video clips, he appeared armed, making violent gestures while criticizing the relationship between Romania and Ukraine.
The agenda of the meeting included: Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, and EU-US relations. Under current affairs, they discussed the energy crisis in Moldova, the situation in Georgia, and recent developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, statement on the meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers
The international community condemns the clashes in Congo and the raids by the M 23 forces, supported by Rwanda, as thousands of civilians are affected, and the fighting could set the stage for a new genocide, similar to that of 1994.
"I speak out to ask for help, for the war to end, and for other women not to be raped," stated Renatha Mwamini to the Wall Street Journal, a young woman caught in the midst of the conflict, a victim of repeated sexual abuses by fighters from local militias.
Horatiu Potra tried to fill the void left by the collapse of the Wagner Group in the center of the African continent, counting on Russia, through its representatives in Congo, to finance his operations and send reinforcements. But he was left alone, while other armed groups in the area launched attacks.
The presence of UN peacekeeping troops in the region and the swift intervention of officials from Brussels and Bucharest ultimately managed to prevent a tragedy.