The Central African Republic announced the opening of an investigation into the parcel bomb attack on a Russian official in the capital, Bangui.
Russia said that one of its representatives in Central Africa was wounded last Friday in a booby-trapped parcel explosion, and the head of the Russian "Wagner" group accused France of being responsible for the bombing, before Paris denied these accusations.
The Central African Republic "strongly" condemned what it described as a "terrorist attack directed against a senior official in the Russian mission, and therefore against the Russian presence in the country," and announced in a statement "the immediate opening of a judicial investigation."
The Central African government spoke of a "wide campaign to destabilize the country" by those whom it classified as "enemies of the Central African people" without naming them, and whose "last maneuver was the detonation of a parcel bomb on December 16 in Bangui."
The bombing targeted Dmitry Seti, president of the Russian House, a cultural center located in Bangui.
He was taken to the hospital with "severe injuries", according to the official Russian news agency "Tass", quoting the media office at the Russian embassy.
The Russian ambassador to Central Africa said on Facebook that his condition was "stable and serious" on Saturday.
France has intervened militarily more than once in the Central African Republic since its independence from it in 1960, and in 2013 it deployed more than a thousand soldiers in its former colony as part of Operation Sangaris, which was approved by the United Nations with the aim of putting an end to civil violence.
The last French soldiers left Bangui last Thursday, and Paris decided in the summer of 2021 to suspend its military cooperation with Bangui, considering it a "partner" in an anti-French campaign led by Russia.
