CAR Mine Massacre May Be Linked to Wagner Mercenaries

ADF STAFF

Who killed nine Chinese nationals at the Chimbolo gold mine in the Central African Republic (CAR)?

The government of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has promised to investigate the murders at the mine owned by China’s Gold Coast Group, which was attacked by gunmen a few days after it opened in March.

The government has blamed foreigners for the attack as part of a complicated plot involving Chadian mercenaries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, and former CAR National Assembly President Karim Meckassoua, who fled the country in 2021.

The rebel group Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), led by former President François Bozizé, has also been blamed.

As more information about the attack emerges, a simpler explanation seems more likely: It was Russia’s Wagner Group.

“It is likely that the Russians are trying to push Chinese investors from African countries, who have become dependent on the Kremlin after the Wagner Group was deployed on their soil,” the Lansing Institute wrote in an analysis of the attack.

One Chinese survivor of the killings told the CAR’s Corbeau News Centrafrique (CNC) that the attackers were heavily armed white soldiers wearing bulletproof vests, and that they spoke no French.

“They had masks to hide their faces … up to their ears,” the survivor told CNC. The mine guards fled as the men approached “the danger became clearer when under the threat of their cannons,” the witness added.

The armed men forced the Chinese nationals to kneel and shot them in the back of the head, the witness told CNC.

The Chinese-owned mine sits near the town of Bambari, the hub of multiple mining operations. Before China took over Chimbolo, Wagner had sought to control the mine, near its own Ndassima mine.

Russians at the nearby mine previously threatened the Chinese nationals at Chimbolo, claiming they had the right to develop that area, according to CNC.

“The Russians consider that this soil belongs to them and that it is not up to the Chinese to exploit it,” the CNC reported.

Wagner mercenaries used similar tactics in Syria in 2018 as part of a failed attempt to take over oil and gas fields and a refinery owned by ConocoPhillips.

The Chimbolo attack followed the attempted destruction of the French-owned Castel brewery in Bangui by attackers dressed in military uniforms and carrying weapons affiliated with Wagner. Wagner manufactures its own beer in the CAR that it is forcing stores to carry.

Since entering the CAR in 2018, Wagner has relentlessly expanded its presence in the country. Wagner operatives serve as advisors and bodyguards to Touadéra. Wagner-affiliated companies mine gold and diamonds and have driven artisanal miners off land near the border with Sudan.

Wagner mercenaries originally hired to train the CAR’s military now participate in raids against rebel groups, leading to summary executions and other human rights violations. Wagner’s propaganda operations show pro-Russian films, broadcast pro-Russian content on radio and online. Wagner operatives even control the CAR’s customs process.

According to analysts, the Chimbolo attack poses two important challenges to the CAR government: Close ties to Wagner make an investigation of Russia’s involvement questionable; and China mining operations pay taxes that Russian operations don’t.

On the first point, the investigation into the Chimbolo deaths is being led by Bienvenu Zokoué, director-general of police, who has what observers describe as a close relationship with Vitali Perfilev, Wagner’s chief in Bangui. Zokoué meets frequently with him either at Wagner’s headquarters or at his own.

Shortly before the attack on Chimbolo, armed men kidnapped three other Chinese nationals in western CAR near the border with Cameroon. The Chimbolo attack prompted Touadéra to travel to China to reassure Chinese companies operating in the country.

“President Touadéra is at an impasse with Wagner,” CNC editors wrote recently. “It is high time to expel them so that the Central African Republic once again becomes a calm and peaceful country where life is good.”