Former Blackwater CEO and and mercenary boss Erik Prince is to lead a team helping the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) secure and tax its extensive mineral wealth, news reports reveal. The deal, reached before the M23 rebels launched a major offensive in January, was just confirmed to Reuters by Congolese officials and diplomats. M23 has since January seized the eastern DRC's two largest cities, Goma and Bukavu, and is threatening to march on Kinshasa, the capital. The Prince-led initiative runs parallel to a broader "minerals-for-security" deal being negotiated between the DRC and the Trump White House. (Mining.com, TNH)

The senior White House adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, met with Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa to discuss the minerals-for-security deal earlier this month, telling reporters: "You have heard about a minerals agreement. We have reviewed the Congo's proposal. I am happy to announce that the president and I have agreed on a path forward for its development." Boulos is the father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, the president's daughter by his second wife Marla Maples. (BBC News)

In a Feb. 8 letter to Trump, Tshisekedi offered mining opportunities for the US Sovereign Wealth Fund, a state-owned investment fund that Trump had launched by executive order days earlier. In exchange, Tshisekedi asked Trump for a "formal security pact" to help his army defeat the M23. (WSJ)

See our last report on the struggle for Congo's mineral wealth.