Erik Prince’s mercenary outfit just took a beating in Congo. An ambush in the country’s east left about 20 dead and wounded, including ex-UFC fighter Tim Kennedy, who was shot in the leg.
Reuters reports the attack happened September 17 in South Kivu, where Congo’s army is fighting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. Kennedy was working for Vectus Global, Prince’s private security company, alongside a team of contractors. At least seven Congolese were killed, along with a former New Zealand special forces soldier. Kennedy, a 47-year-old ex-Green Beret, took three gunshot wounds to the leg and is being treated at Walter Reed hospital in Maryland. Vectus Global declined to comment.
Prince founded Blackwater, the private military firm whose members were pardoned in 2020 for killing Iraqi civilians. He’s an ally of President Trump, and Congo’s government hired his new company to secure and improve revenue collection from the country’s vast mineral reserves. Reuters says this is the first time Prince’s forces have taken casualties in Congo.
The ambushers may have tracked a surveillance drone back to the team’s location, and the sophistication of the attack points to Rwandan military involvement.
Word of Kennedy’s wounding first surfaced earlier this week when ex-Delta operator Brent Tucker mentioned it on his podcast. Reuters’ reporting now fills in the rest: Prince’s men were in the middle of it, and this was no small firefight.
The Blackwater replacement is now taking casualties in a war most Americans don’t even know is happening.
## See alsoSee also: Trump Said He May Have the FBI Look Into Nolan Wells’ Death · DHS Secretary Called Mamdani’s Anti-ICE Words Dangerous