According to the American daily, Washington warned the Chadian authorities of Wagner’s support for rebel movements. A threat that is taken very seriously in Ndjamena.
In his investigationTHE wall street journal quotes a senior US official as saying that “ the russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin actively prepares the destabilization of the Chadian transitional government “. According to this anonymous source, the boss of the Russian paramilitary group offered the Chadian rebels material and operational support in order to bring down the government of Ndjamena.
An operation that could include the elimination of President Mahamat Idriss Déby, specifies this same source. Washington informed the Chadian authorities, indicates the wall street journal. And the warning is taken very seriously, specifies an African source, also quoted by the American daily.
In the article, the senior American official does not specifically mention the Front pour l’alternance et la concorde au Tchad (Fact). But the newspaper’s journalist recalls that Fact, responsible for the death of former President Idriss Déby, was in contact with the group Wagner in Libya. They were stationed at the same Jufra military base and fought together alongside Marshal Khalifa Haftar to overthrow power in Tripoli.
The Fact denies any current connection to Wagner
Joined by RFI, Mahamat Mahdi Ali, head of Fact, denies any link currently between the rebel movement and the Wagner group. ” As far as we are concerned, at the most opportune moment when it was very easy and it was very possible to have relations with Wagner in April 2021, when we entered Chad, we did not do it. And I don’t know why we would today “, he launches.
The head of Fact looks back on the period when the movement rubbed shoulders with Wagner’s mercenaries. ” We went there [en Libye, NDLR] to contain Daesh and it stopped thereensures Mahamat Mahdi Ali. When we went to Chad, the Russians didn’t even know about it. We didn’t even notify them. »
This involvement in an attempt to destabilize an incumbent president, indicates the wall street journalwould mark a new stage in the activities of the Wagner group on the African continent.
► To read also: A survey details the progress of the Wagner group in the Central African Republic