There are silences that are expensive. Washington and Paris are still paying that of December 13, 2017 to the United Nations Security Council. This winter Wednesday, in New York, the permanent members have until 8 p.m. to oppose the request for an exemption presented the day before by Russia to deliver weapons to the Central African Republic, under embargo since 2013. 8 p.m. . No objection. The first Russian weapons and instructors landed a few weeks later in Bangui, the Central African capital, followed by less official trainers… “We saw white men arriving in mismatched military uniforms, without corps insignia, wearing canvas boots, recalls former Prime Minister Martin Ziguélé (2001-2003), a figure of the opposition. Five years later, Wagner’s mercenaries have built an economic empire and are holding the president hostage.”
At the head of a state of 5.5 million inhabitants landlocked in the heart of central Africa and threatened by a rebellion, Faustin Archange-Touadéra has made this shadow army close to Vladimir Putin his praetorian guard. Life insurance at a gold price. “In exchange for this protection, Wagner got his hands on the strategic sectors of the country, underlines one of the investigators of the collective All Eyes On Wagner (AEOW), which scrutinizes the activities of the company. Gold, diamonds, beer, sugar , wood, the Central African Republic looks more and more like a Russian colony…”
From January 2018, the men of the “orchestra” (the nickname Wagner gives himself) take up residence in Berengo, the former residence of Emperor Bokassa 1st, transformed into a military camp. Several mining companies hatch. All lead to a single individual: Evgueni Prigojine, a businessman known for his low works in Syria, Libya and Sudan, where he plays pilot fish for the Kremlin. In his viewfinder, oil in Syria and Libya, gold and diamonds in Sudan. And the Central African Republic. Two mining companies, Lobaye Invest and Midas Resources, obtain the authorities’ sesame there, under dubious conditions. In 2019, the license for the Ndassima mine (Centre), one of the largest gold deposits in the country, was withdrawn from the Canadian consortium Axmin and reassigned to Midas Resources.
Systematic looting
Very quickly, the Wagner octopus spread its tentacles, using the same recipes in the wood sector. The All Eyes On Wagner collective details its modus operandi in his latest investigation, photos and dates in support. March 2019: the Bois rouge company is created. The following year, a decree canceled the operating permit for Forest Industry of Batalimo, the oldest forestry company in the Central African Republic, with French capital. Within six months, the land was allocated to Bois Rouge. Operation starts in July 2021. But as of July 2022, AEOW points out the company’s links with Wagner.
In the eye of the storm, the company changed to become, in December, Wood International Group (WIG)… and continued its business. “Bois rouge/WIG loses money in 2021 and 2022, but becomes profitable from 2023 with 367,550 euros, specifies AEOW. At the end of the concession (thirty years), it could accumulate 36.121 million euros. Stored at the Kassaï camp in Bangui, one of the country’s largest military bases, the wood is exported by sea via the Cameroonian port of Douala to Chinese and European customers, this survey reveals.
What will remain of the Central African forests ceded to Bois Rouge without any social or environmental requirements? “We are not a classic armed force, but a real organized criminal and paramilitary group. My guys enter African countries and leave nothing alive there”, boasted last summer Evgueni Prigojine, in front of Russian prisoners whom were trying to recruit to fight in Ukraine. The facts sadly prove him right in the Central African Republic, where his men are suspected of war crimes against local populations.
The Wagner Mafia
As for Wagner’s methods to preserve his economic interests, they again come under the purview of a veritable mafia. “A series of unattributed acts have targeted French companies in the Central African Republic, recalls Charles Bouëssel, a former journalist in the country, now a consultant at the International Crisis Group: the fire at the Orange headquarters in 2021, the jet molotov cocktails on a Castel warehouse [NDLR : le géant français de la bière] and a communication campaign against this same group when Wagner was launching his own brand of beer.” More serious, the Russian mercenaries are suspected of having murdered nine Chinese employees of a mining site last March.
Desperate to expand his empire, Wagner recently gained a foothold in Mali by pacting with the ruling junta for gold concessions, and he is now eyeing neighboring Sahelians. On December 7, 2022, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso traveled to Moscow for a “private visit” carried out on board a Malian air force plane. “A trip organized by Wagner for Wagner, fulminates a Western diplomat. The head of government met there with senior officials of the group, who probably offered his services.” According to this same source, this trip was followed by a visit by a “Wagner team”, made up of about ten “organizers, logisticians and geologists” to the Burkinabe capital, at the end of the year 2022.
Meanwhile, Prigozhin’s propaganda machine was running at full speed. Since February 2022, news pages and groups relaying messages against France and for Russia have multiplied on Facebook. A nebula of bogus media and fake accounts has sprung up. At the heart of this galaxy of disinformation, the Pan-African Group for Trade and Investment (GPCI), an agency specializing in the trade of influence and disinformation based in Lomé and headed by Harouna Douamba, a lobbyist close to the galaxy Wagner. This Ivorian became known in the Central African Republic, where he launched several pro-Russian and anti-French campaigns. If the presence of Wagner is not yet authenticated in Burkina Faso, the small telegraph operators of Moscow are visibly preparing the ground… In Ouagadougou, a bar has just been renamed “Wagner VIP”.