How Did A Famous, Lying UFC Vet Get Shot Conducting Shadowy Paramilitary Operations In The Congo?

On Oct. 9, the New York Times reported that UFC veteran Tim Kennedy was recovering in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after he’d been shot three times while conducting a deadly, murkily defined operation with Erik Prince’s private military group in the remote highlands of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo against Rwandan-backed rebel group M23. The constellation of proper nouns in that sentence is staggering, and lights the way to understanding the strange, idiosyncratic state of affairs in one of the most mineral-rich areas of the planet. I am going to walk you through this story, proper noun by proper noun (out of order), in hopes of untangling the messy web.

Democratic Republic of Congo

A few billion years ago, the large-scale geologic province known as the Congo Craton formed. Cratons are geologic provinces that have survived the endless churn of tectonic activity that recycles most of the Earth’s crust, meaning they contain some of the most ancient rocks on the planet. In central Africa, the Congo Craton is overlaid by the massive and comparatively young Congo Basin, a sedimentary complex that contains the largest deposit of cobalt in the world, in addition to huge amounts of copper, gold, tantalum, and other valuable minerals.