Date: Thursday, 29 November 2018
In the span of a year, the Central African Republic has gone from a country on the margins of international attention to a flashpoint. Russia’s expanding military presence and French attempts to retain influence over its former colony have ignited a competition for influence, threatening CAR’s already shaky peace process and its fledgling democratic government, which lacks much authority beyond the capital, Bangui. If Russia and France continue to recklessly prioritize their own interests, then CAR’s fragile security situation will only worsen.
In late October, Moscow announced its second arms shipment to CAR and the deployment of 60 additional military instructors. France’s opposition to Russia’s activity has ramped up steadily since then. On Nov. 2, France announced its own delivery of arms, as well as 24 million euros in bilateral aid. French officials also indirectly reprimanded Russia for overseeing a parallel peace process that has undermined the established United Nations-led talks between the government and over a dozen armed groups. In August, Russia and Sudan met with a number of Central African rebel groups in Khartoum and signed a preliminary peace agreement. Paris drafted a resolution for the Security Council labeling the U.N. peace process “the only framework” for a peace deal in CAR. Russia responded by chastising France, saying it should put aside “parochial national interests” and insisting that its efforts were helping.
Prior to Russia’s engagement, France’s interest in CAR’s affairs appeared to be waning as the peace process, which began in 2013, dragged on. Even as the security situation continued to deteriorate, France showed little appetite for any kind of intervention, and only took a major political stance in April when some armed groups falsely claimed that they had French support.
French disengagement from CAR created an opportunity for Russia to expand its economic and political ties in the resource-rich country, which has vast deposits of gold, uranium and other minerals. Moscow blocked a French effort to deliver arms for the Central African military at the U.N. Security Council and lobbied last January to deliver its weapons instead. With the shipment came 170 Russian civilian trainers who were later revealed to be mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Sewa Security Services. The mercenaries have been acting as bodyguards for President Faustin-Archange Touadera and helping train CAR’s military and gendarmerie.
While the Kremlin worked with the Central African government, the French magazine Jeune Afrique reported that Russian officials had also reached out to at least three rebel groups to discuss lucrative mining concessions. The nature of Russian ties with armed groups in CAR remains opaque. In July, three Russian journalists were killed in an apparent robbery while investigating the scope of Russian mercenary activity in the country.
Lost in the intricacies of competition between Russia and France is the impact this outside maneuvering will have on those caught in the middle of CAR’s crisis. Arms, whether from Russia or France, are not useful without a military to wield them efficiently or ethically. The European Union has had an in-country training mission for some time, but there’s little indication that the Central African Armed Forces are in any shape to oppose the various armed groups occupying most of the territories outside Bangui. Russian promises to train the military may bear fruit, although the resulting forces may not be as supportive of the government nor as concerned with the EU’s standards for military conduct.
The struggle between France and Russia risks drawing in additional actors that are more interested in resource extraction than the country’s stability. Recently, a group of Chinese nationals looking for a mining site in CAR were killed by townspeople after the suspicious death of a Central African guide who had accompanied them; accounts of what may have happened differ between the Chinese media and other outlets.A great-power competition for influence and resources in CAR will torpedo any hope of a lasting peace.