“Prioritize cooperation with African states.” “Continue building a partnership (…) with our African friends.” “Shaping the global agenda together”. It was in these terms that Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed his plans for deep Russian-African cooperation, during a speech in Moscow in March 2023. Since then, a year has passed and the first base of the Russian army on the African continent is about to emerge in the Central African Republic. “The defense ministries of the two countries are continuing negotiations,” said Russian Ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR) Alexander Bikantov in an interview on Tuesday, March 26, with the Russian news agency Tass. “Efforts are underway to choose a location for the base,” he continued.
However, Alexandre Bikantov indicated that it is currently complicated to talk about a precise timetable. At the same time, the deployment of Russian soldiers in the South-East of the country to strengthen the security system in the face of rising insecurity was announced this Tuesday by Maxime Balalou, Minister of Communication and government spokesperson, via Radio Ndeke Luka, the leading media in the Central African Republic.
“We would like Russia to build a base in the CAR,” Fidel Ngouandika, advisor to the Central African president, declared to the Russian press agency African Initiative on January 16. He then indicated that the existing infrastructure in Berengo – former imperial palace located around 80 km from Bangui and center of power under Bokassa I – makes it possible to station 10,000 soldiers. Recalling that “the purpose of the Russian military presence in the CAR is to train soldiers”, the presidential advisor was very enthusiastic: “We are 1000% committed to Russia and we believe that Russia must stay with us” .
Concerning the Russian military presence on Central African soil, it is now known that Russia began to act – at least unofficially – in 2017, through the private military company Wagner, whose assistance was requested that same year by Central African President Faustin Archange Touadéra. However, Moscow’s choice to install a regular army base can be explained by the geographical location of the CAR: thanks to a position located in the middle of the continent, the Russian army could easily radiate towards the West, East, North or South, the distance between Bangui and Johannesburg (South Africa) being approximately equivalent to that which separates the CAR from Tripoli (Libya) or even Djibouti.
However, citing “a certain number of obstacles to the development of large-scale cooperation”, Ambassador Alexandre Bikantov highlighted the lack of fluidity of this cooperation in November 2023, criticizing “unprecedented sanctions pressure on Russia » as well as “unfair restrictions imposed on the CAR”. The first insinuation here refers to sanctions imposed by the United States on the Wagner group in the summer of 2023, following abuses committed against civilian populations. The second recalls the arms embargo, imposed by the UN on the CAR since the civil war of 2013.
“If Russia abandons us today, we will be devoured by Western states who have done nothing for our country since our independence,” said Fidel Ngouandika. Furthermore, the CAR is awaiting Russian investments in agriculture, livestock, mining, energy, construction and transport, according to the advisor to the Central African president. However, “regarding Russian actions in the CAR, it is difficult to make predictions,” says Antoine Glaser in Le Figaro. Asked about the Russian presence in the CAR, the writer and expert on the African continent was quite timid: “We have to wait for action.”
As a reminder, this former French colony turned to Russia for the military domain after three years of coordination with France as part of Operation Sangaris, which ended in 2016 and whose objective was to put an end to to the civil war which had struck the country since 2004. The agreement signed with Moscow in 2018 provided for the supply of weapons as well as the training of Central African officers in Russian military schools. Furthermore, President Touadéra had already called on the Wagner group in 2017 because of the intensification of internal unrest. However, in the space of five years, the Russian paramilitary society had moved from military aid to political interference and economic plunder, getting its hands on gold and diamond mines.
But after the disappearance of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin at the end of summer 2023, the Russians seemed to be absent. Therefore, having indicated that it wanted to diversify its partnerships, the Central African Republic formalized on December 24 a security agreement signed with the United States. This bilateral agreement consists of the Americans helping the CAR to “train its soldiers”, “both on Central African soil and on American soil”, according to the proposal which was formulated by Washington before signing the partnership. The offer was then accepted by Head of State Faustin Archange Touadéra.
The situation therefore promises to be doubly unprecedented, involving the cohabitation of Russian and American soldiers in the same country. “Unheard of since the Cold War,” underlines Thierry Vircoulon. The researcher at Ifri (French Institute of International Relations) sees this as an illustration of the new geopolitical situation, where the role of France is considerably diminished: “For our part, we are no longer just spectators,” he concludes.
Russian ambition in Africa is not limited to the Central African Republic alone, since Moscow has reportedly launched the construction of military camps in five other African states (Egypt, Eritrea, Madagascar, Mozambique and Sudan), according to the German daily Bild, which cites in August 2020 a report from the German Foreign Ministry dated 2019, of which it obtained a copy, and which deals with “Russia’s new ambitions for Africa”.
But the reception given to Russians by local populations is not unequivocal. For example, the “Azandé Ani Kpi Gbé” militia (“Many Zandés are dead”, in French), was created in March 2023 to respond to abuses committed by Russian armed groups against civilians, while demonstrations denouncing a project aimed at withdrawing Russian fighters from the country took place on January 24 in Ndélé, in the north of the country. As a reminder, France, the UN and the European Union had accused Wagner’s mercenaries of human rights violations in 2021.