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End of mission for France in the Central African Republic

2022-12-15T17:48:06.805Z


The French “Mislog” which “mobilized around 130 French soldiers no longer had any operational justification”, Paris said.


The last French soldiers have left the Central African Republic.

Nine years after Operation Sangaris, which was launched to stop an outbreak of " pre-

genocidal

" violence, according to Paris, the few dozen soldiers who still performed logistical functions at the M'Poko camp have packed up.

The handover of the camp, which is also used by the UN mission Minusca and the European Union mission EUTM-RCA, took place "

in complete transparency

", in good coordination with the Central African army and in the presence of his chief of staff, it is argued on the French side.

The French "

Mislog

" which "

mobilized about 130 French soldiers no longer had any operational justification

“said Paris.

Operation Sangaris, which had mobilized up to 1,600 soldiers, ended in 2016.

The departure of the last soldiers had become inevitable for several months.

It marks a new stage in the French decline in Africa.

Military cooperation between Paris and the CAR had been suspended in 2021, after the Bangui authorities had chosen Wagner's mercenaries to ensure their security.

Cohabitation with the French forces had become impossible, as is also the case in Mali.

Moreover, Ivan Maslov, the former representative of Wagner in CAR, took charge of setting up the private company in Bamako.

The French soldiers see him playing a role in supervising Russian influence in Africa.

They denounce the logic of predation of Wagner in the African countries where the mercenaries are established.

In CAR,

Laboratory of a war of influence

The end of the Central African mission is bitter for Paris when we remember that in 2019, when the Head of State Emmanuel Macron pleaded for a new relationship with Russia, the CAR was to be the "

laboratory

" for a dialogue between military.

The CAR was more the laboratory of a war of influence on social networks, between pro-Russian accounts fueling anti-French sentiment and fake French accounts created to respond to them.

Read alsoIn Africa, the future of French military bases under discussion

This struggle continues.

Thus, the French army was accused in veiled terms of having orchestrated at the end of November in Bossangoa a bombardment of a military base of the Central African army and its "

allies

", as the CAR calls the soldiers of Wagner.

The incident "

spurred an immediate informational offensive

", we noted within the French military community.

But this was thwarted, it is believed.

The Central African authorities have distanced themselves from these rumours, it is said.

Concretely, more than two weeks later, the facts are not yet established, apart from the denial of the French army of any responsibility.

If testimonies were collected on the spot, the images circulating on social networks accredit the hypothesis of an improvised explosive device rather than that of a bombardment.

The idea of ​​a Chadian operation, in retaliation for Wagner's influence on its territory, has been raised.

But the French army claims not to have recorded the trace of a flight from Chad.

While the military are still monitoring Wagner's activity in the CAR, they prefer not to talk about it publicly.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-12-15

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