This “criminal act” aims to “harm the development of friendly relations” between Moscow and Bangui, denounced the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Russia said that one of its representatives in the Central African Republic had been injured on Friday, December 16, by the explosion of a trapped package – an attack that the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner attributed to France. The Central African Republic, countries in civil war since 2013, is at the heart of the Russian influence strategy on the continent. Wagner’s growing role has also led France, a former colonial power, to withdraw its last soldiers from the country on Thursday.
“The head of the Russian house [the cultural center] received an anonymous package on Friday, opened it and an explosion occurred,” said the press service of the Russian embassy, quoted by the ‘Tass official news agency, specifying that this official, Dimitri Sytyi, was hospitalized with “serious injuries”. Shortly after, the wealthy businessman close to the Kremlin and founder of Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine, accused France and asked the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to launch a procedure to declare “France as a state support for terrorism”, After its press service.
According to Evguéni Prigojine, Dimitri Sytyi, before losing consciousness, had read a note accompanying the package that said: “It is for you, from all French people, the Russians will make the African camp.” The leader of Wagner, who for years denied leading this group before recognizing it recently, has provided any evidence of this note and AFP was unable to confirm the content of these declarations. He also assured that Mr. Sytyi had received threats in November, who lives in France.
“We must not show fear”
This “criminal act” aimed to “harm the development of friendly relations” between Moscow and Bangui, accused the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without however appointing an alleged sponsor. A Russian diplomatic source in Bangui, interviewed by the Ria Novosti agency, said that the victim had received the package at his home, which is not on the Embassy territory.
At midday, the very busy district of the Russian cultural center, located in downtown Bangui, near the embassies of France and Russia, was calm, found AFP journalists. No police device was in place around the site and traffic was normal.
A Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov, said that the Russian cultural center was going to remain open despite this attack. An AFP journalist was able to see people coming and coming inside the site at midday. “We must not show fear in the face of terrorists, they are just waiting for this,” said Bogdanov, while calling for strengthening the security of the Russian diplomatic mission in the Central African Republic.
France had not reacted immediately on Friday. The last 47 French soldiers deployed in the Central African Republic left the country on Thursday. France had decided in the summer of 2021 to suspend its military cooperation with Bangui, judged “accomplice” of an anti -French campaign remote -controlled by Russia. France regularly accuses Russian paramilitaries of committing abuses against civilians and of having established a “predation” regime of the Central African Republic.