According to Ukrainian services, there are several thousand young Africans from different countries fighting alongside the Russians.By
Source: Cornelia Toelgyes–Africa ExPress
Wagner’s mercenaries , now Africa Corps (directly controlled by the Ministry of Defense in Moscow), are recruiting young Africans to fight in Ukraine. The issue was also raised a few days ago by the Bloc républicain pour la défense de la Constitution (BRDC), a grouping of the main opposition parties in the Central African Republic.
Earlier this month, the Civil Society Working Group denounced the recruitment of Central Africans by Russian mercenaries. In response, the Bangui government called the news false.
Security Officer
Nothing strange , given that the Central African president, Faustin Archange Touadéra, recently appointed Dmitri Podolsky, nicknamed “Salem,” as head of security. Salem comes from the ranks of Wagner. Previously, he was in the pay of the Russian army and fought in Syria. In 2017, he enlisted as a mercenary.
In 2022 he took part in the invasion of Ukraine with the Russian private company of soldiers of fortune. During the battle of Bachmut (a city in eastern Russia located in the Donetsk Oblast) he lost his right arm. After convalescence he was sent to Central Africa as an officer.
Gold mining
In addition to training Central African troops , Russian mercenaries conduct raids against rebel groups. But the main reason for their presence is the mining sites: Wagner members have secured gold mining rights, while at other times they have appropriated them, attacking deposits and driving out those who had licenses. The precious metal from Africa has also allowed the Kremlin to circumvent international sanctions, imposed because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Local sources, such as Corbeau News Centrafrique (CNC), continue to report cases of abuse and violence committed by the paramilitary group, particularly in rural areas. Human rights violations of all kinds have also been confirmed in the latest report by Yao Agbetse, an independent UN expert. The mercenaries have rejected all the accusations, stating that these reports are merely Western propaganda against Russia.
A new pawn
Now that the mercenaries are under the direct control of the Russian Defense and the group has taken the name of Africa Corps , last autumn Moscow sent its new pawn to Bangui, Denis Pavlov, who officially holds a diplomatic post at the Russian embassy. In reality, according to European embassy and security sources, he is an agent of the SVR , the foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation.
According to All Eyes on Wagner (a website focused on Wagner mercenaries), the arrival of the Russian 007 was announced to the Central African authorities in a letter from the head of the SVR, Sergei Narychkin. The mission of Russian mercenaries in Central Africa is quite profitable: Bangui has reportedly paid almost half a billion euros to pay Prigozhin’s paramilitary group since their arrival in 2018. Now it is the Russian secret services that have taken over Central African affairs.
In short, the Russian presence in the former French colony is massive, led by figures of a certain caliber. It is therefore obvious that the government of Bangui has denied the recruitment of young compatriots. Yet an investigation entitled ” Putin’s Riflemen ” by Jeune Afrique , an online site of current affairs on Africa, shows the opposite.
From prison to the front
According to the website’s report , several thousand young Africans are reportedly fighting alongside Russian troops: not only Central Africans, but also Cameroonians, Ivorians and others.
A Central African, who for security reasons asked to be called “Alain , ” told Jeune Afrique that he was in a Bangui jail, accused of stealing a motorbike. During his arrest, he received a visit from a white man, later revealed to be Russian, who offered to help him get out of the putrid prison.
The white man managed to convince him to join his company, which would send him to Russia for a three-month training course as a security guard. The boy and other prisoners accepted the offer. They took a plane to Moscow and during a stopover in Dubai they were joined by many young people from various countries in sub-Saharan Africa. According to Alain, the group, once in Russia, consisted of 300-400 Africans.
Contract in Russian
Once in Moscow, all the Africans were then asked to sign a contract written in Russian, a language unknown to them. They found themselves incorporated into Wagner’s ranks to fight on the front in Ukraine. “It was a real nightmare. I don’t know how, but I managed to escape to Latvia. Others were not as lucky as me,” Alain concluded.
According to the Ukrainian secret services, there are several thousand young “ Putin’s African riflemen ”, many of them Central Africans, “supervised by the Minister for Livestock and Animal Health of Bangui, Hassan Bouba, a precious ally of Wagner, now Africa Corps”.
Months ago, eight prisoners of war were arrested in Ukraine. Among them were young people from Nepal, Cuba, Somalia, and Sierra Leone. They said they had responded to job advertisements, attracted by attractive salaries, but had been deceived and found themselves on the front fighting in Ukraine. All of them just wanted a better life to help their families, who remained in their homeland.
Cornelia Toelgyes
corneliacit@hotmail.it
Martin Plaut 