Russian Wagner Group mercenaries have suffered heavy casualties in a fresh wave of fighting between government forces and rebels for control of lucrative gold mines in the Central African Republic (CAR).
The clashes come amid rising instability in the anarchic, resource-rich country that has emerged in recent years as one of Russia’s key centers of influence in sub-Saharan Africa.
The government’s offensive is being led by some of the estimated 1,000 Wagner fighters stationed in the Central African Republic as of 2018.
Founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to the Kremlin, Wagner has been deployed to about a dozen African countries as part of Russia’s efforts to project power on the continent and attract valuable resources. Last month, the US labeled Wagner a “major transnational criminal organization,” in part because of his escalating role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the Central African Republic, Wagner militants have defended the regime of Faustin-Archange Touadéra against repeated rebel attacks on the capital, Bangui, and have faced human rights abuse charges.
The clashes began two weeks ago in a town near the borders of Cameroon and Chad, where rebels faced off against Russian and government forces. Violence broke out again near the Sudanese border last weekend. Between seven and 17 Wagner fighters were among the dozens of casualties, rebel sources claimed.
“We lost two [killed] and many injured, but we defeated them and seized many military trucks… We staged an ambush and they got trapped,” Ahmadou Ali, a senior leader of the rebel Patriots for Change coalition, said in a phone interview.
Experts say reliable numbers are hard to come by, but it’s clear Wagner suffered relatively heavy casualties.
A source close to the CAR national military said seven Russians were killed in the ambush, one of Wagner’s heaviest single casualties in Africa since fighting against Islamist rebels in Mozambique in 2019.
Ali said CAR forces did not join the fighting. “It was a fight between us and the Russians. They just used the government forces to legitimize things. The Russians took over the whole country. They are everywhere: they guard the borders and you see them everywhere [valuable] Resources. They stole all of our resources,” he said.
Although Touadéra’s grip on power remains strong, the fresh violence points to greater instability in the Central African Republic than in recent years, analysts said. The country, one of the poorest in the world, is on the brink of economic collapse. A series of shifts in the alignment of regional powers in recent months have also heightened tensions.
“The government in Bangui is completely running out of money,” said Enrica Picco, Central Africa director of the international crisis group. “Wagner does not fully control all mining sites and some are still being fought. The move of the group [into frontier zones] changed the dynamics of the conflict as the rebel factions there banded together to protect their mining revenues in the face of a common enemy.”
Marie-Reine Hassen, a former diplomat and opposition politician, said the president should relinquish power. “He’s losing it and no one wants him, I know he won’t but the country is a mess. People are dying of hunger, no clean water, no electricity,” she said.
Last year there was another round of clashes after Wagner militants attacked artisanal gold mines along the Central African Republic’s border with Sudan. Dozens of miners were killed in at least three attacks, and witnesses interviewed by the Guardian described “massacres” by militants they identified as Wagner’s relatives who swept through camps full of migrant workers and mining facilities over a six-week period.
Since Wagner arrived in the Central African Republic, it has attempted to seize control of the flow of gold and diamonds as part of a broader push to secure resources. Analysts believe the group was originally promised gold and other mining concessions for its services in lieu of cash payments.
Such concessions have gained importance as the Russian ruble has come under pressure since Moscow invaded Ukraine. Precious metals, particularly gold, could help Vladimir Putin’s regime weather the economic impact of sanctions.
The new clashes are another example of how Wagner’s intervention has often been linked to a spike in civilian deaths, even as the group boasts it is more effective at fighting insurgents than UN peacekeepers or conventional troops deployed by former colonial powers like France .
A study by the NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project found that civilians were responsible for more than half of political violence involving Wagner in Central African Republic and 71% in Mali, where Russian mercenaries were used to reinforce the military in late 2021 , aimed at -led regimes when French troops withdrew.
“In both cases, this exceeds the rate of civilian attacks by allied state forces as well as the major insurgent groups operating in each context,” the NGO said.
Human Rights Watch said in a May report that forces in Central African Republic whose witnesses were identified as Russians appeared to have beaten, tortured and killed civilians there since 2019. It said Russian-linked forces in Central African Republic wore no special uniform and had no official insignia or other identifying marks.