Architects of Terror: The Wagner Group’s Blueprint for State Capture in the Central African Republic
Since its arrival in CAR in 2018, the Wagner Group has supported the Touadera’s government’s violent campaign against anti-government armed groups.
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Since its arrival in CAR in 2018, the Wagner Group has supported the Touadera’s government’s violent campaign against anti-government armed groups.
France and Russia continue to use armed proxies to maintain their influence in CAR. President Touadera has used his position, and the country’s vast diamond and gold resources, to sustain criminalized patronage networks rather than provide citizens, half of whom survive on emergency foreign aid, with security and economic development opportunities. As presidential elections approached in December 2020, the regime sought to maintain power, using the pandemic as an excuse to attempt to delay the vote. The Khartoum agreement has been rendered useless, serving only to entrench a criminalized regime. The UN and EU should implement concrete measures to combat this war economy.
Despite limited enforcement capacity, the African Court provides an avenue for redress when national judiciaries are unable to dispense justice, underscoring its instrumental role in promoting norms and standards of conduct on the continent.
Many Congolese dread the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers, believing government forces are unable to provide security in the eastern DRC.
The use of United Nations–assessed contributions to support African Union–led peace operations has the potential to revitalize peace operations in Africa.
Pan-Africanism's long legacy as a framework for ending colonialism and advancing peace, people-based democracy, and human rights remains as vital as ever for reclaiming citizen agency.
Structural factors continue to drive higher levels of migration within and out of Africa. While this represents a vital source of labor for host countries, irregular migration continues to pose extraordinary risks.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chaotic elections failed to break the country’s long legacy of fraudulent polls and plunged the government into a fresh crisis of legitimacy.
To break the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s long legacy of stolen elections, the country’s independent oversight institutions, civil society, and media will need the backing of SADC and international democratic actors.
African-led peace operations have been vital tools for managing Africa’s complex array of security challenges, though continued reform is needed to intervene more decisively in the continent’s most devastating conflicts.
Unaccountable regimes in Africa are highly vulnerable to exploitation by external authoritarian actors—at a heavy cost to citizen sovereignty.
Since 2022, the Kremlin has earned more than $2.5 billion in African gold from the Africa Corps’ (formerly known as the Wagner Group) missions in Mali, Sudan, and Central African Republic which it uses to fund its war in Ukraine. Russian actors rely on smuggling and corporate subterfuge to extract large amounts of “blood gold” out of Africa to destinations such as Russia and the UAE where it can be mixed with other legitimate sources of gold and converted to cash. To stop this system, international authorities could implement wider sanctions, designate the Africa Corps a terrorist group, and introduce more stringent supply chain controls.