C. Africa criticizes UN report on abuses by Russian personnel and military

The Central African Republic on Wednesday dismissed as “defamatory” claims by UN experts who said Russian government troops and military personnel had committed rights violations.

“It is a clear desire to tarnish by all means the image of our military institution, at a time when it continues to make enormous sacrifices to restore the authority of the State over the entire territory,” said Defense Minister Rameaux-Claude Bireau said in a statement.

One of the poorest and most volatile states in the world, CAR is grappling with rebels who until recently controlled two-thirds of the country.

President Faustin Archange Touadera is supported by UN peacekeepers and Russian personnel, whom the Kremlin describes as military instructors.

In an annual report presented this month to the UN Security Council, experts documented what they described as a series of abuses that violated international humanitarian law.

The violations – committed by Central African soldiers and the Russians – “included cases of excessive use of force, indiscriminate killings, occupation of schools and large-scale looting, including humanitarian organizations,” said the Minister. report.

Map of Central African Republic. By (AFP)

Bireau called the document a “libelous publication, based on fabricated and unverified evidence.”

“(It is) a strategy aimed first at weakening the morale of our troops but also at pushing the United Nations to implement sanctions against our Russian allies, whose mission to restore the authority of the State undermines definitively the action of the rebels, which abound in the provinces ”, he accused.

Russia and Rwanda urgently sent military reinforcements to CAR last December, supporting Touadera as a rebel coalition tried to seize the capital ahead of presidential elections.

Since then, much of the rebel-held territory has returned to government control.

But the conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the first months of the year, while about half of the population faces “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to the UN.

In April, Moscow acknowledged the deployment of 532 instructors to the CAR, and said that number had never exceeded 550.

But UN experts “noted that several sources estimated the figure to be significantly higher, ranging from 800 to 2,100”.

Russian bodyguards, above, protect President Touadera, whose close adviser, Valery Zakharov, is also Russian. By FLORENT VERGNES (AFP / File)

This estimate does not include an additional 600 Russians whose deployment was announced to the UN in May by the CAR.

In a statement issued in New York, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called Russian personnel “mercenaries working as a branch of the Russian Defense Ministry.”

“Russia must immediately end the violence, hold those responsible to account and eliminate mercenaries endangering UN peacekeepers and undermining their crucial work for peace and security in CAR.” , she said.

CAR’s close relations with Moscow date back to 2018, fueling friction with France, the former colonial power and the country’s traditional ally.

Russia has also stepped up its investments in the CAR’s mining sector. The country’s riches include gold, diamonds, copper and uranium.