Central African Republic and its Russian Helpers

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while... but when it first popped up I didn't bother and then weeks and months rolled by... plus there was stuff going on in Ethiopia and Nigeria and Mozambique but... might as well start a thread about the randomness going on in the Central African Republic and the involvement of Russia and Russian PMC's there. The CAR AFAIK has always been politically instable or repressive but people in the West are finally caring/noticing now because Russia tied up in there now.


So just some brief notes on the Central African Republic. It was ruled by a Dictator named Jean-Bedel Bokassa from 1965 to 1979 and who for a time wanted his backwater former French colony known as the Central African Empire. That didn't work out too well and after machine gunning over a hundred students and children who were protesting his regimes corruption (in this particular case forcing students to purchase apparel from a company owned by one of his many wives) France intervened and removed him from government.

Within two years another military junta took over but by 1986 General Kolingba started to slowly introduce democractic and constitutional measures until he agreed to free and fair elections in 1993 and stepped down from power, allowing the democratically elected government under Ange-Felix Patasse to take over. He purged the government of much of its junta elements over the next decade but this sparked resentment and the military launched several coups and rebellions and in response Patasse employed foreign Rebel groups as mercenaries to maintain the government. In 2003 this resulted in a successful coup, backed by Chad, under General Francois Bozize to take over the country while Patasse was away.

From 2004 onward, Bozize has been in charge but the country basically was plagued by fraudulent elections and Civil Wars with numerous interventions by various groups ranging and sparked two major Civil Wars, the Central African Bush War which lasted until 2007 and the currently ongoing Central African Republic Civil War which started in 2012, sparked by widely fraudulent elections and continues on to this day. Several thousand French, AU and UN peackeepers were located in the country during this time at various points as well. Some of the recent events that occurred include...

A Rebel Coalition, called Seleka, took control of the country from Bozize in 2013 and placed it under the control of Michel Djotodia who was backed by primarily Muslim militias. Djotodia eventually resigned early in 2014 under pressure due to large amounts of Christian-Muslim sectarian fighting that was taking place. That didn't end the Sectarian Violence however as roughly ten major different groups fought for control of the country until 2016...

That was when during a runoff of the 2015 elections, the ironically named Faustin-Archange Touadera was elected President of the Central African Republic. The elections were hampered by obvious security issues but was determined to be largely successful in spite of such. However in the subsequent formation of the government, no members of the Seleka or numerous other militia backed opposition groups was given posts in the new government.

In 2017 Russia became involved in the conflict, in a role where Russian instructors, several hundred of them, were advising and supporting President Touadera's faction during the still ongoing Sectarian conflict as well as providing his personal bodyguard unit. In response to this, six of the major Rebel Groups who control about two thirds of the country formed a... *coughs* Rebel Alliance to challenge the probably Democratically elected President and his Russian backers.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Russia might be limiting Cryptocurrency but its client state in the Central African Republic just adopted Bitcoin as one of its official currencies, following El Salvador to being the second country to adopt it as such!

BBC said:
Lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, said a statement from the CAR presidency.
The move puts CAR "on the map of the world's boldest and most visionary countries", it said.

Others have raised fears that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could make it easier for criminals to launder money, and that they are environmentally damaging because they use so much electricity to generate.

The internet is needed to use any cryptocurrency but in 2019, just 4% of people in CAR had access to the web, according to the WorldData website.

Now when you think of the Central African Republic, you will think of it as one of the most bold and visionary countries.

 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
A Mail Bomb Seriously Injured the the Head of a "Russian Cultural Center" located in the city of Bangui within the Central African Republic. The anonymous sender wasn't identified in the potential assassination attempt but the head of the Russian Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin urged the Russian government to declare France a state sponsor of terrorism in response to this incident.

 

WolfBear

Well-known member
I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while... but when it first popped up I didn't bother and then weeks and months rolled by... plus there was stuff going on in Ethiopia and Nigeria and Mozambique but... might as well start a thread about the randomness going on in the Central African Republic and the involvement of Russia and Russian PMC's there. The CAR AFAIK has always been politically instable or repressive but people in the West are finally caring/noticing now because Russia tied up in there now.


So just some brief notes on the Central African Republic. It was ruled by a Dictator named Jean-Bedel Bokassa from 1965 to 1979 and who for a time wanted his backwater former French colony known as the Central African Empire. That didn't work out too well and after machine gunning over a hundred students and children who were protesting his regimes corruption (in this particular case forcing students to purchase apparel from a company owned by one of his many wives) France intervened and removed him from government.

Within two years another military junta took over but by 1986 General Kolingba started to slowly introduce democractic and constitutional measures until he agreed to free and fair elections in 1993 and stepped down from power, allowing the democratically elected government under Ange-Felix Patasse to take over. He purged the government of much of its junta elements over the next decade but this sparked resentment and the military launched several coups and rebellions and in response Patasse employed foreign Rebel groups as mercenaries to maintain the government. In 2003 this resulted in a successful coup, backed by Chad, under General Francois Bozize to take over the country while Patasse was away.

From 2004 onward, Bozize has been in charge but the country basically was plagued by fraudulent elections and Civil Wars with numerous interventions by various groups ranging and sparked two major Civil Wars, the Central African Bush War which lasted until 2007 and the currently ongoing Central African Republic Civil War which started in 2012, sparked by widely fraudulent elections and continues on to this day. Several thousand French, AU and UN peackeepers were located in the country during this time at various points as well. Some of the recent events that occurred include...

A Rebel Coalition, called Seleka, took control of the country from Bozize in 2013 and placed it under the control of Michel Djotodia who was backed by primarily Muslim militias. Djotodia eventually resigned early in 2014 under pressure due to large amounts of Christian-Muslim sectarian fighting that was taking place. That didn't end the Sectarian Violence however as roughly ten major different groups fought for control of the country until 2016...

That was when during a runoff of the 2015 elections, the ironically named Faustin-Archange Touadera was elected President of the Central African Republic. The elections were hampered by obvious security issues but was determined to be largely successful in spite of such. However in the subsequent formation of the government, no members of the Seleka or numerous other militia backed opposition groups was given posts in the new government.

In 2017 Russia became involved in the conflict, in a role where Russian instructors, several hundred of them, were advising and supporting President Touadera's faction during the still ongoing Sectarian conflict as well as providing his personal bodyguard unit. In response to this, six of the major Rebel Groups who control about two thirds of the country formed a... *coughs* Rebel Alliance to challenge the probably Democratically elected President and his Russian backers.

Would Seleka be better or worse than the current Central African Republican government is?
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Gunmen stormed a newly opened gold mine in the Central African Republic resulting in the death of nine Chinese Nationals and wounding of several more. This came days after other gunmen captured three Chinese nationals elsewhere in the country.

The attack is being blamed on anti-Government Rebel Forces though said Rebel Groups blame Wagner PMC which is aligned with the current Central African Republic government for the attack.


Regardless of responsibility, the CAR's President Touadera is planning a visit to China to Kowtow in forgiveness to the CCP over these recent events.
 

Buba

A total creep
The CAR for me will always stand for Bokassa, cannibalism and corrupt French politicians.
BTW - haven't you just posted that the Chinese leader dropped with a visit to Moscow?
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
The CAR for me will always stand for Bokassa, cannibalism and corrupt French politicians.
BTW - haven't you just posted that the Chinese leader dropped with a visit to Moscow?

I did. I don't think the CAR is planning a visit immediately but probably in the near future since the attacks just recently occurred.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
I knew things were a bit messy in the Central African Republic but I didn't realize just how much til I saw it in map form.

FzoI4SRWAAEvEM4
Fw4fk4jWYAUFscL


Course this map is like a month old so who knows. :p
 
Last edited:

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik

Apparently six percent of the population of the Central African Republic may have died in a single year, that of 2022 and no one has really noticed it beyond the borders of the country.

Undark said:
The Central African Republic has neither reliable birth and death registries nor regular censuses. To figure out how many people were dying, Karume's team traveled by car, boat, motorcycle, and foot to conduct interviews across the country. When they analyzed their survey data, they estimated that nearly 6 percent of CAR's population died within 2022, in a country with a median age around 15. Scaling for population size, this toll would amount to a loss of more than two New York Cities. And yet, the world outside of Africa is barely aware that CAR is a country. The title of the team's report asks: "How can we not know?"

The most proximate explanation is that the United Nations estimated a drastically lower death rate in CAR in 2022, four times smaller than the survey's result. The U.N.'s frequently cited figure relies on statistical predictions derived from fragmented data collected several years earlier, rather than current, on-the-ground information. It is a difference with consequence. The U.N.'s mortality estimate in CAR does not merit the internationally accepted definition of a humanitarian emergency: Namely, at least one death per 10,000 people per day. The rate in the new study exceeds that threshold. Such definitions matter because emergency declarations spur fundraising, international aid, and political pressure.

The country consistently ranks in the bottom ten of most international metrics when it comes to living standards, has a population of about six million people of which almost a quarter are internally displaced due to the violence in country despite the presence of both the United Nations and Russian Mercenaries.

Significant majorities, 70-80% are facing food shortages with the country on the brink of famine and thus malnourishment being a strong contributor to deaths from things like malaria, followed by diarrhea and vomiting related illnesses before violence itself being estimated by this survey as a cause of death.
 

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