There is “convincing evidence” that Russian paramilitaries supporting government forces in the Central African Republic have committed “very serious violations” of civilian casualties, including killings and torture, “with absolute impunity”, since 2019. Human Rights Watch (HRW) with a report released today.
This country, one of the poorest in the world, has been transformed since 2013 into a theater of extremely deadly civil war, the intensity of which, however, escalated after 2018. However, President Fostan Arkanz Tuandera called on Moscow in late 2020 to save its army. , weak and with few means, to help him repel a guerrilla attack that threatened Bangui and his regime.
Hundreds of Russian paramilitaries, “mercenaries” of the Russian private military company Wagner, according to the UN and Western governments, have been sent to the country to reinforce the forces already there and have been supporting its government since 2018.
Thanks to them, armed groups, rebel organizations and criminal gangs were repelled by most of the two-thirds of the country they still held in 2020.
However, the UN, the European Union and Western governments, especially France, accuse Wagner’s “mercenaries” of committing crimes and atrocities. against civiliansand Mr. Tuanderas’s government for allowing them to plunder the country’s resources in exchange for their military support.
“Convincing evidence confirms that the forces recognized as Russian, in support of the government of the Central African Republic, have committed very serious violations against civilians with absolute impunity,” said Aida Sawyer, director of HRW the armed conflicts, in this 13-page report, based mainly on the testimonies of dozens of victims, their relatives and eyewitnesses.
“Forces that eyewitnesses said were Russian are said to have carried out summary proceedings, tortured and beaten civilians since 2019,” insists the Human Rights Watch.
“The government of the Central African Republic has every right to seek international security assistance, but it cannot allow foreign forces to kill and mistreat civilians with complete impunity,” Sawyer said.
The report links – citing “evidence” from Western governments and its experts UN – the “Russian forces” with Wagner, who according to her has “close relations with the Russian government”.
The Human Rights Watch reports in particular the execution, by “Russian-speaking men” of 12 “unarmed” men, who were arrested at a roadblock, “beaten” and then shot in the head on July 21, 2021, near Bosyomog of Bangui.
The text also mentions “Arbitrary Imprisonment, Torture and Extrajudicial Execution” in which Russians are said to be involved in Alindao (centrally) in June 2021. The victims are said to be “men who were arrested by chance on the street”.
When the NGO contacted them to comment on the report, neither the Central African Government nor the Russian Foreign Ministry responded, according to HRW. Moscow has assured that Russian paramilitaries are “unarmed trainers” on a mission to train the men of the Central African Republic’s armed forces.
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