Central African Republic

Russian officials on Monday appointed Gen. Andrey Averyanov, head of covert offensive operations for Russian military intelligence, to supervise the mercenary Wagner Group’s valuable operations in Africa following the reported death of its founders, Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, in a plane crash last week.

The founder and leader of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) Yevgeny Prigozhin resurfaced on Monday in what appeared to be his first video production since a failed attempt to oust the leaders of the Russian Defense Ministry in June, urging “real heroes” to join the mercenary organization.

A message claiming to be from the head of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), Yevgeny Prigozhin, published on social media on Monday suggested that the mercenary organization would continue to remain active only in Africa for the time being – mere days after another claiming to be Prigozhin praised the coup against a pro-Western president in Niger.

A Russian paramilitary group called COSI said in a Sunday post on the messaging platform Telegram that hundreds of “experienced” Wagner Group mercenaries are pouring into the Central African Republic (CAR) to “ensure security” ahead of a July 30 referendum that could give President Faustin-Archange Touadera a third term in office.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions against four companies linked to the infamous Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that thousands of mercenaries from the Wagner Group will remain deployed in Africa, even though Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny against the Russian military over the weekend and then sought refuge in Belarus with some of his forces.

A crew of as-yet unidentified gunmen attacked a Chinese-operated gold mine in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Sunday, killing nine Chinese nationals and injuring two more.

The parliament of the Central African Republic (CAR) passed a bill last week legalizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as official forms of currency, CAR’s presidency announced Wednesday.

The Foreign Press Association, Africa – an organization for foreign reporters on the continent – issued an impassioned statement on Tuesday condemning global coverage of the Russian assault on Ukraine for being “racist” and showing a “lack of nuance and empathy” towards victims of war in Africa and other areas with majority non-white populations.

Russia plans to deploy about 600 additional military personnel to the Central African Republic (CAR) in the near future, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported Thursday.

At least 100,000 people in the Central African Republic (CAR) have been displaced by fighting between government forces and a coalition of opposition militias in recent weeks, the New Humanitarian reported on Monday.

More than 250 foreign workers, mostly Chinese, have fled violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) for the Cameroon border town of Garoua Boulay over the past week, Cameroon government authorities said on Monday.

The government of the Central African Republic (CAR) on Monday announced that Russia and Rwanda had deployed military forces in the country to counter an alleged coup d’etat and safeguard the national elections. Russia denied it sent any forces to

The Catholic bishops of the Central African Republic (CAR) have issued a four-page appeal, asking for free and transparent elections and a permanent solution to internal armed conflict.

The president of the war-torn Central African Republic warned Sunday that stability in Europe is conditioned upon stability in Africa because “everything is connected.”

Russia is intensifying its military presence and influence in Africa by “increasing arms sales, security agreements, and training programs for unstable countries or autocratic leaders,” a move that is causing concern in the West, the New York Times confirms.

Contents: Over 10,000 people displaced by new fighting in Central African Republic civil war; Suspicions grow about Russia’s Wagner PMC mercenary group in Central African Republic

An extensive report published by Thomson Reuters Foundation on Wednesday finds that the price of a child bride in eastern Africa, particularly South Sudan and Kenya, has skyrocketed as families seek ways to avoid starvation and ensure their children have food and shelter.

Contents: Russia gains foothold in Central African Republic, displacing France; The rise of Russia’s military contractor Wagner Private Military Company (Wagner PMC)

Contents: Muslim vs Catholic violence surges again in CAR capital city Bangui; Angry protesters bring corpses to MINUSCA headquarters in Bangui; The self-defense group ‘The Force’ gets revenge; Central African Republic crisis civil war continues

The UK Guardian published a report on Thursday alleging that “the United Nations has allowed sexual harassment and assault to flourish in its offices around the world, with accusers ignored and perpetrators free to act with impunity.”

Contents: Violence in Nigeria grows over clashes between herders and farmers; Oklahoma! – The farmer and the cowboy should be friends

Contents: UN Secretary-General in Central African Republic begs for more funding; Bangassou becomes the most dangerous town in Central African Republic

Contents: Six Red Cross workers and 30 civilians killed in Central African Republic massacre; UN Human Rights chief warns of ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Central African Republic

Contents: Christian vs Muslim violence continues to spread across Central African Republic; CAR refugees threaten to spread Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo

Contents: Pope Francis apologizes for Catholic Church’s role in 1994 Rwanda genocide; A century of genocides

TEL AVIV – Israel is the 11th-happiest country in the world, beating the United States (14th), Germany (16th) and the UK (19th), according to the UN’s 2017 World Happiness Report, released Monday.

Contents: Herders invade ranches in Kenya, ambush and kill British ranch owner; The ranchers (farmers) versus the pastoralists (herders)

Contents: Central African Republic war morphs from religious to ethnic war; United Nations peacekeeping force MINUSCA uses airstrikes to stop bloodbath in Bambari

Muslim rebels brutally stabbed to death a Christian pastor in the Central African Republic (CAR), then proceeded to burn his church to the ground.

Contents: New armed militia emerges in Central African Republic: Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R); Central African Republic crisis war continues to spin out of control

Contents: France pulls out of Central African Republic as sectarian violence grows; Widespread dissatisfaction with UN peacekeeping force MINUSCA

Contents: Violence resurges in Central African Republic’s crisis civil war; In Darfur Sudan, genocidal violence continues after 13 years of civil war; European Union will pay Sudan’s militias to block migration to Europe

France has suspended five members of the military for violence during their deployment in Central African Republic against citizens they were sent to protect, the Defense Ministry announced Saturday. The five risk being booted from the army.

New “extremely troubling” allegations have emerged of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and French troops in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said. French authorities have been notified after a UN team received accounts that troops from the Sangaris

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has found Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, guilty of war crimes.