Russian Mercenaries Accused in Rash of Rapes in CAR

ADF STAFF

Gender-based violence and allegations of rape in the Central African Republic (CAR) have escalated in recent months, and locals are casting much of the blame on Russian mercenaries.

More than 1,000 Russian mercenaries of the notorious Wagner Group are estimated to be in CAR since they deployed in 2018 to protect the government of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra against rebels.

This contingent, which is now part of the rebranded Africa Corps and reportedly has been subsumed by Russian military intelligence, also is tasked with protecting Russia’s mining interests and comes into regular contact with civilians.

Personal horror stories involving Russian mercenaries often are not registered with local authorities for fear of reprisals, but they are not difficult to uncover.

Philip Obaji Jr., an award-winning independent journalist who has documented Wagner atrocities in several African countries, visited Bouar in western CAR in December 2023.

“Sexual violence at the hands of Wagner is becoming a big problem there,” he told ADF. “I spoke to two victims who said Russian soldiers had raped them near their family farms, one in front of her grandmother.

“The Russians went from farm to farm in this area. It sounded systematic to me.”

Reported cases have spiked since 2020 from about 9,200 to 25,500, according to the United Nations and its humanitarian partners.

In a 2023 report, Médecins Sans Frontières said that between 2018 and 2022 it administered care to more than 19,500 survivors of sexual abuse in CAR, while the U.N. documented close to 15,000 other cases of sexual violence during the same period.

Obaji spoke about the increasing attacks with Félicité Padou, a 65-year-old trader who has worked for more than 20 years at the bustling market in Bouar, one of the country’s largest towns.

“Since September last year, more than 10 girls have described how they were raped by white soldiers in their farms,” Padou said in a July 23 article by British newspaper The Guardian. “Our daughters are no longer safe in their own farmlands.”

Padou said more women are avoiding the fields, which is affecting food production and has sent some food prices up by 50% in recent months.

“Because many women are no longer farming, the prices of foodstuffs are increasing,” she said. “Everyone is suffering because some heartless white soldiers have turned farms into rape centers.”

Military bases used by the Russian mercenaries also cause nightmarish memories for numerous women who say they were taken there by force, raped and abused.

Obaji said he spoke to a dozen women who claimed they were kidnapped, drugged and raped by Russian mercenaries at their base in Bouar. A medical official who had been stationed at the base told Obaji that victims typically were administered contraceptive injections afterward.

In another report, a local fighter who works with Russian mercenaries told The Associated Press that he saw six Russians rape a local woman in the tent where he was sleeping at their base in Bambari in early 2023.

Experts say gender-based violence continues to be a widespread problem as it has throughout CAR’s ongoing civil war. Every hour, two people become victims of gender-based violence there, according to a 2023 report by the U.N.

Having done little to improve the security situation for civilians, Russian mercenaries are adding to the misery.

“More than 10 years on since this crisis unfolded, many people are still displaced, vulnerable and live at the mercy of armed groups,” Central Africa director for Human Rights Watch Lewis Mudge told AP. “A new dynamic has emerged as well whereby mercenaries aligned with the government are also, at times, preying on the local population.”