France on Friday criticized Russia over what it called a “takeover” of the Central African Republic.
Paris also acknowledged that the African country’s cooperation with Russian “mercenaries” had led France to reduce its military support.
Earlier this month, the French military suspended budget support and military cooperation with the Central African Republic and accused its government of being “involved” in an anti-French disinformation campaign with Russia.
The Central African Republic has become a key area in the controversy over the role of Wagner’s mercenary group in Africa, which is allegedly run by the shady businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin.
“In the Central African Republic, there is a form of takeover, and especially of military power, by Russian mercenaries,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM TV.
“We are fighting against this and it has led us to take action to withdraw a certain number of our military personnel.”
He said that Russian personnel surrounded the President of the Central African Republic Faustin Archange Touadera and exploited the country’s wealth.
One of the world’s poorest countries, the Central African Republic, has been chronically unstable since gaining independence from France in 1960.
In 2013, France launched a three-year military operation to stop sectarian violence after then-President Francois Bozize was ousted by rebel groups.
The Central African Republic’s closer relationship with Moscow dates back to 2018 when Russia sent “instructors” to help train its besieged armed forces and supplied small arms and were relieved of the UN arms embargo.
Last December, under a bilateral cooperation agreement, the Kremlin sent several hundred personnel to fight Touadera, which was threatened by a rebel offensive.
Russians also provide personal protection for the president and his powerful national security adviser, Valery Zakharov, is Russian.
On May 30, in an interview with the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “anti-French talks have given legitimacy to predators from Russian mercenaries at the top of the state. Touadera … today is a hostage for Wagner group.”
In July 2018, three Russian journalists investigating Wagner’s activities in the Central African Republic for an investigative media – Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev and Kirill Radchenko – were killed in an ambush.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former oligarch and Kremlin critic, funded their project and an investigation he supported linked their death to Prigozhin.
But Russian investigators rejected the report, insisting that the trio died in a robbery.
Prigozhin, who has been sanctioned by both the EU and the US, has denied allegations of links to Wagner and denied any role in conflicts in Africa.
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