Since the arrival of the Wagner group in 2018, the mercenaries have made the country, torn apart by decades of civil war, a field of experimentation
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“We are going to support Russia until our last breath!” This March 5, 2022, thousands of kilometers from Ukraine, then invaded by the forces of Moscow for a little more than a week, dozens Demonstrators brandish the Russian flag in the streets of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic.
“The Russians asked Ukraine to stop its attacks, but the Ukrainians did not obey, so Russia was forced to attack Ukraine, that’s what you have to understand” , explain the organizers, members of “National Galaxy”, an association close to power. Russian propaganda is displayed on the signs: “Russia and Central African Republic against Nazism”. A little behind, masked white men observe the scene from their smoked windows. In Bangui, however, everyone knows their belonging.
The mercenaries of the Wagner group, a company without official existence but present wherever Kremin has interests, are at the heart of the Central African power, protecting a favorable government in Moscow. In a few years, the country has become the laboratory of aggressive and multifaceted propaganda.
The first Russians arrived in early 2018. France had just put an end to the French operation “Sangaris” (2013-2016) without succeeding in extinguishing the embers of the civil war. Bangui then signs a defense agreement with Moscow, which will send over time up to 2,000 “instructors” to form a national army in a stampede and under-equipped.
The Wagners ensure the close protection of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and lead fierce fights for the control of mining sites in the interior of the country. At the cost of serious abuses on civilians, largely documented by the United Nations: tortures, rapes, summary executions, ethnic targeting.
a disinterested partner
But Russia also fights on another front: that of propaganda. “Secret meetings, to prepare demonstrations, are organized to the presidency where the Wagner and the highest Central African authorities sit,” explains a former member of the ruling party, today in exile after having denounced the Russian maneuvers. “Participants receive a sum of money which they then distribute to neighborhood leaders by taking their share. Each one receives 1,500 CFA francs [about 2 euros] at the end of the demonstration”, what survive one more day in the second poorest country in the world.
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