Six rebels and a civilian were killed Thursday, June 22 in clashes between an armed group and soldiers in the east of the Central African Republic, a country in the grip of a civil war for almost nine years, the deputy told AFP. - local prefect and an army officer.
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Overnight, fighters from the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), an alliance of rebel groups, "
attacked Bakouma
", a small town 780 kilometers northeast of the capital Bangui, assured the deputy. prefect Simon Pierre Gbate, contacted by telephone.
“
The soldiers repelled the rebels, there were six assailants killed, as well as a civilian
,” assured Simon Pierre Gbate.
The attack and the toll were confirmed to AFP by a Central African army officer contacted in Bakouma, on condition of anonymity.
Mobilization of Russian mercenaries
“
Thanks to the coordinated actions of our peacekeepers based in Bakouma and the Central African armed forces, the armed elements have withdrawn from the city
“Said Lieutenant-Colonel Aïssa Yahaya, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (Minusca).
This country is the second least developed in the world according to the UN, and has been the scene of a civil war since 2013, very deadly in its first years but which has decreased in intensity since 2018. At the end of 2020, the most powerful of the many groups who then shared two-thirds of the territory had joined forces within the CPC and had launched an offensive on Bangui shortly before the presidential and legislative elections to overthrow the Head of State Faustin Archange Touadéra, who had called on Moscow to the rescue of his helpless army.
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Hundreds of Russian paramilitaries - "
mercenaries
" from the private security company Wagner according to the UN - had then joined a few hundred others already present since 2018 and made it possible, in a few months, to repel the rebel offensive and then to drive them back from a large part of the territories and towns they controlled.
But without being able to reinstall everywhere and permanently the presence and authority of the State.
The UN, the European Union and countries like France in particular, accuse Wagner's "
mercenaries
" of committing crimes and abuses against civilians, and the power of Faustin Archange Touadéra to let them plunder the country's resources in exchange for their military support.
