Central African Republic: Allegation that foreign aircraft bombed its soldiers and Russian allies

The government of the Central African Republic said on Monday that an aircraft taken off by a neighboring state had bombed a base of its armed forces and Russian paramilitaries fighting alongside them in the northwestern part of the territory, threatening retaliation.

The aircraft proceeded to “drop explosives on the town” of Bossangoa, targeting “a base of our armed forces, our allies and a cotton factory”, the government of the African country where the army and hundreds of fighters of the Russian private military company said in a statement. Wagner is fighting against insurgents. Bangui consistently refers to Russian paramilitaries as “allies.”

It is the first — or at least the first time such a thing has been publicly announced — attack by an enemy aircraft since the outbreak of the civil war in the Central African Republic in 2013.

The bombing took place during the night of Sunday to Monday, shortly before 03:00, according to Bangui.

Damage

The explosives that were dropped caused “extensive material damage”, according to the government announcement.

The aircraft, “after committing these crimes (…) moved northward (…) before crossing our border,” the text continues.

The border with Chad is a relatively short distance from Bossangoa, a town that was until recently in the hands of rebels. The country also shares borders with Cameroon (to the west) and Sudan and South Sudan (to the northeast), which are however far apart.

An investigation is underway to “determine the responsibilities” for this “heinous act committed by enemies of peace” and “will not go unpunished,” while measures are being taken “just in case,” the statement said.

Relations between the Central African Republic and Chad have been strained for years. Bangui accuses Djamena of allowing armed groups to use its territory as a rear base and offering asylum to their most important leader: former president Francois Bozize. On the other hand, Djamena had accused a powerful rebel leader in February 2022 of seeking to secure Wagner’s support, although the person concerned ultimately preferred to side with the Chadian government.

In late May 2021, Chad’s government accused the Central African Republic’s army of killing six members of its armed forces, including five who were “kidnapped and executed”, in an attack on a border post on its territory. Djamena had then spoken of a “war crime”.

A few months later, in December 2021, soldiers of the two countries exchanged fire at the border. A Chadian soldier has been reported missing.

“No Lights”

A plane “bombed the Russian base at 02:50, we heard at least four bombs but as it was night, we didn’t see the plane, which had no lights on and was making a little noise,” Etienne Ngeretum, the agency’s regional director, told AFP by phone. Water Resources and Forests in Bosangoa.

Two of the bombs, he added, went off in his garden: it neighbors, he explained, the cotton factory which the Russians use as a base.

“The explosions were terrifying (…). I’m fine, I just have a scratch on my right leg from shrapnel,” he continued. “I found nails and metal fragments on the roof of my house, which is no longer habitable,” the official added.

Wagner

The mayor of Bosangoa, Pierre Denamguer, also confirmed the attack by phone. “It was an aircraft without lights that we could not identify, its target was a cotton factory that the Russians and the military use as a base, the damage is not too much,” he commented.

President Fostan Arkanz Tuadera’s government called Moscow to its rescue in December 2020 when a rapid rebel advance towards Bangui was under way.

Russian paramilitaries, especially Wagner’s, have arrived by the hundreds, adding to the hundreds of others already present in the country since 2018.

The militants who then controlled two-thirds of the Central African Republic were quickly pushed out of most of their strongholds, but continue their guerrilla war with sporadic attacks against the army and its allies, particularly in the area between Bosangoa and the border with Chad.

The UN, non-governmental organizations and Western capitals accuse the Central African army and Wagner of war crimes with civilian casualties and Mr Tuandera’s government of rewarding mercenaries with mineral resources, especially gold and diamonds, in one of the world’s poorest countries .

RES-EMP

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