Russia's Wagner Group in Africa - Campaign Of Terror
Good Evening, what we've seen in the report is a shocking compilation of atrocities that we have heard of and seen trickle out of the Central African Republic over the years of Wagner's activity there.
But it is again extremely shocking to see it all on paper, to see the witness testimonies soldiers and militiamen trained by Wagner to commit atrocities against the civilian population. Why? Wiping out villages, cutting off people's fingers.
It's quite a horrific read. But this prototype template for Wagner in Africa, and Central African Republic specifically, is the longest engagement they've had on the continent. The deal was cut in October 2017 and came in action in January 2018, when Russian instructors, as Russian authorities like to call it, were sent to the Central African Republic to support the military in protecting the presidency there from rebellions.
In 2022, a study showed that the population of 5.6% of Central African Republic's population died. Now, Wagner is not the only thing at play there, of course, but the presence of Wagner has really worsened the humanitarian crisis there in a country that has seen decades of conflict.
That is essentially the partnership that Russia has with countries on the African continent. And that is what Wagner do on the continent. They exploit existing political issues, fragmentation issues within the civilian population, there's an exerted effort for propaganda. But that isn't just Wagner.
We've seen it definitely in Mali, where crowds were actually cheering and waving Russian flags as French troops left and Wagner came in their place to fight the counterinsurgency that's been plaguing Mali for years.
And that isn't, again, just about Wagner. It is about deals that are cut by. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in which Wagner is a contingent that is essentially replaceable.
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