In his speech of July 13, 2016, before the French officers gathered at the Hotel de Brienne on the eve of the National Day, President François Hollande announced the end of the French military intervention in the Central African Republic. ” We were able to ward off the risk of this country disintegrating. This success leads us to hand over to the international community and the Central African authorities. “, announces the Head of State, who specifies: “ Next October, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Minister of Defence, will therefore travel to the Central African Republic to officially pronounce the end of Operation Sangaris. “.
The announcement of the French military withdrawal is an opportunity for Moscow, which wants to increase its influence in Africa. From 2017, the Kremlin offers Bangui a complete security offer, recalls Thierry Vircoulon, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). ” The issue of arms deliveries was the gateway for Moscow, since the Central African Republic was under a UN embargo “.
” A very poor appreciation of Russian policy by Paris »
For the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) to receive weapons, an agreement from the Security Council was indeed required. ” This is where Russia stepped in and obtained, as a member of the Security Council, an exemption for this arms delivery. “, explains the researcher who underlines that with this delivery of weapons, the question of training logically arose. ” Wagner’s instructors then arrived. It was a package : weapons and training “.
The arrival of Russians in the Central African Republic is all the more simple since in 2018, Paris, as part of its security architecture, pleads to reach out to Moscow. ” There has been a very poor appreciation of Russian politics “, explains Thierry Vircoulon for whom “ it is clear that French diplomacy wanted to maintain a space for dialogue with the Russian authorities, without realizing that the Russian authorities were not interested in dialogue “. The researcher recalls that Paris was also engaged at the time in Mali with Operation Barkhane, and therefore did not want to be in charge of two missions at the same time. For Thierry Vircoulon, France “ in fact sacrificed, it must be said, the Central African Republic to the operation in Mali “.
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Wagner did not fulfill his contract to pacify the Central African Republic
Five years after their arrival, the Russians have transformed the Central African Republic into an economic preserve, without completely fulfilling the security contract initially proposed.
“ They only partially filled it », specifies Thierry Vircoulon, « insofar as, with the deployment by the paramilitary group Wagner of 1 500 men, they only managed to secure the capital Bangui and a number of provincial capitals “. The researcher recognizes that Wagner’s mercenaries also managed to train and equip certain battalions of the Central African army. ” But they did not manage to pacify the Central African Republic and to ensure that the armed groups which are in the bush are completely defeated and disappear. “, he underlines. Since the end of 2021, Wagner’s mercenaries have indeed been harassed by a number of these armed groups far in the bush.
Will the Wagner group stay in the Central African Republic or will President Faustin-Archange Touadéra seek other support? A few days before the 2nd Russia-Africa summit in Saint Petersburg, all options are on the table.
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