Russia-Ukraine War: Wagner Group still important in CAR after Prigozhin's death | Oneindia News

last year

With Prigozhin's death will the Wagner Group continue its operations in CAR? And if so, what will happen to the country if Russia withdraws the soldiers due to the pressures of the war in Ukraine.

#RussiaUkraineWar #PrigozhinDeath #WagnerGroup #CAR #WagnerMercenaryGroup #DW
~HT.178~PR.152~ED.102~

Transcript

00:00 Trezor Adum has never met Nusim Yevgeny Prigozhin, yet he is a pro-Wagner supporter and a staunch

00:09 believer in the group's presence here in the Central African Republic.

00:13 Today, Trezor and his friends are paying tribute to Prigozhin at this Wagner statue in the

00:19 heart of the capital.

00:21 They want to show their respects to the head of the Wagner group after his death in an

00:27 inexplicable plane crash in Russia on the 23rd of August.

00:31 "We cannot measure the greatness or the added value of what the Wagners have brought to

00:38 the Central African Republic.

00:41 In previous years we have had peacekeeping missions, missions that were sent to the Central

00:46 African Republic to secure our borders, but what did this achieve in terms of results?

00:52 What have we seen?

00:53 What have we known?

00:54 We have only known repeated coups.

00:56 We must support Russia so that we can never again speak of such a rebellion in the Central

01:01 African Republic."

01:09 The Central African Republic has been in the midst of a series of civil wars since 2003,

01:14 which left three quarters of the territory under rebel control.

01:22 The estimated 1,000 Wagner mercenaries stationed in the Central African Republic first came

01:26 to the country in 2018 to help the government of President Touadéra defeat rebel forces

01:32 and fill in a security vacuum left by France after it withdrew its military forces from

01:38 the country in 2016.

01:40 A lot of people in the Central African Republic think the Wagner group, together with the

01:44 Rwandan troops, have done more to quell the country's many rebellions than the French

01:49 and the UN forces combined.

01:52 Rebel foreign observers accused the Russian paramilitary of committing atrocities.

01:57 The majority of the civilians here think their successes are worth the price.

02:05 But while the Wagner group has many supporters in the country, it also has its opponents.

02:11 The Central African Republic opposition leader, Mohamed Kamoun, was a former prime minister

02:16 in President Catherine Samba Panza's transitional government and is currently leader of the

02:22 Bé-Afrika-Tikwe opposition party, meaning the Central African Republic for us all.

02:28 He says the mercenaries don't belong in the Central African Republic.

02:33 Not only is it a group which does not come to help to develop and foster peace in Africa,

02:41 this group is made up of people who came for self-interest and benefits.

02:46 Whether it's the Charter of the African Union or the Charter of the United Nations, the

02:50 activity of the Wagners is banned.

02:52 They have come for the wrong cause and the wrong reason.

02:55 Today Central Africans are paying the price for their negative presence since the Wagners

02:59 came in here.

03:00 They exploit our timber, our mines, trade, etc.

03:04 They have created unfair competition in terms of security.

03:08 A country like CAR should instead rely on credible partners.

03:14 With Prigojin's death, the question on many minds is whether the Wagner group will continue

03:19 its operations in the Central African Republic, but this time under Kremlin authority.

03:24 And if so, what will happen to the country if Russia withdraws the soldiers due to the

03:29 pressures of the war in Ukraine?

03:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Russia-Ukraine War: Wagner Group still important in CAR after Prigozhin's death | Oneindia News

Category

Transcript

Recommended