GAROUA-BOULAï, Cameroon — Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has reclaimed control of the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut — a claim Kiev again denies, saying its forces are still fighting southwest of the industrial city and advancing around its flanks. The thick fog of war makes it difficult to determine whether one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Ukraine War is really over.
The leader of the private Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said his troops were taking a break and are now resting for a few days as their mission to Bakhmut is complete and he is handing over control of the city to regular Russian troops.
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Ukraine denies that Russia controls the city of Bakhmut as mercenary group Wagner claim victory
The mercenaries leave a bloody trail. Alongside Russian forces, they have been accused of thousands of war crimes since the all-out invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
But long before the Wagner group rose to global fame in Ukraine, the mercenaries were active in parts of Africa, where they are accused of similar atrocities. Our CBS News investigation previously revealed how Wagner – described by the US government as a “transnational criminal organization” – plundered mineral-rich countries, including Central African Republic (CAR), to fund his criminal and paramilitary activities, such as his role in the Ukraine war.
How Russia’s Wagner Group is using Africa to fund the war in Ukraine
In order to maintain control of lucrative gold mines and timber forests, the Wagner group rules the Central African Republic with virtual fear and violence.
Editor’s note: This report provides details of sexual assault and other violent crimes that some people may find disturbing.
Bucha, Ukraine, April 2022
In the early months of the Ukraine War, when Russian forces were forced to hastily withdraw from the suburbs around the capital Kiev, the Bucha killing sites were revealed.
On almost every street corner, CBS News found evidence of the horrors that were happening. Our cameras captured images of the bodies of civilians with their hands tied, strewn along once-peaceful country lanes. Residents told us harrowing stories of torture, rape and mass executions.
Local residents react to alleged massacre by Russian forces in Bucha
Ukrainian and international investigators quickly rushed to Bucha to document evidence of possible war crimes by Russian forces, including mercenaries from the notoriously brutal Wagner Group.
Wagner’s influence on the Central African Republic
Just a year earlier there was another massacre, but this one thousands of kilometers from Ukraine in the city of Bambari, Central African Republic. However, there were no shocking images and no global spotlight as the media is not welcome in the Central African Republic.
No international prosecutors came to document the mass killing of civilians, and no one came forward to indict the Wagner mercenaries.
Faustin-Archange Toudéra has been President of the Central African Republic since 2016. He is protected by Wagner gunmen, and in return the Russian company receives contracts to mine gold in the country.
Masked Wagner Group mercenaries stand guard along with domestic security agents during an event where Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin-Archange Touadéra speaks on stage in September 2022. CBS News
The story Wagner tells is that the mercenaries are there to train Central African soldiers and help them crush rebel groups intent on overthrowing the president. The reality is that the Wagner Group has taken over the country so completely that they can operate with impunity, and they are accused of using horrific violence to ensure there is no competition for their revenue streams from local gold dealers.
The Central African Republic is a country so stricken by fear that not a single atrocity was reported when a special government commission of inquiry was set up to investigate alleged human rights abuses.
But behind the fear and intimidation is the truth.
The Bambari Massacre
CBS News has compiled a report on the February 2021 massacre in the gold mining town of Bambari, using eyewitnesses, all of whose names have been changed to protect their identities. One of them is Madina, who fled her home in the Central African Republic to neighboring Cameroon after Russian mercenaries attacked Bambari and took control of her family’s gold trading business.
Workers dig in an open pit mine in the Ndassima gold mine in the Central African Republic. The region is dotted with gold mines, most of which were small, artisanal operations before Russia’s Wagner Group moved in. CBS News
Bambari is surrounded by artisanal gold mines that have supported the local community for years. Madina used to live in a large complex of houses, but now she’s locked in a tiny mud hut in the town of Garoua-Boulaï, just across the border in Cameroon, where there’s only room for a single bed.
Sitting on it, she told CBS News it was around noon on February 15, 2021 when the “White Russians came and destroyed Bambari.”
Madina, a refugee from neighboring Central African Republic, lies on her bed in the mud hut she has taken refuge in in Cameroon’s border town of Garoua-Boulaï as she speaks to CBS News in April 2023. CBS News
They just started shooting everywhere for no reason, without speaking to anyone or asking questions, she told us. Madina said she was so scared that she hid under her bed for three days without eating or drinking.
“They shot at us from the ground and planes fired from the sky,” she said. “So many people died, it was hard to count.”
Bambari is a predominantly Muslim community with very specific rituals for burying the dead. After the murders, Madina’s job was to wash the bodies of the women who had been shot.
Her son Usman was also there that day. He said the bloodbath began just before noon prayers.
“To say ‘kill’ is an understatement. It was a total bloodbath. Like Armageddon,” he told us. “They spoke Russian. Even Chechen. Some wore masks and had long beards.”
A photo included in a June 25, 2021 letter from a United Nations panel of experts on Central African Republic shows damage from gunfire at Al Taqwa Mosque in the city of Bambari. United Nations
Central African Republic authorities claim there was an operation to root out the rebels at the time, but some of the dead were found at the local Al Taqwa Mosque and photos taken after the massacre show the walls from gunfire were littered.
These images were included in a United Nations report prepared by a panel of experts on the Central African Republic, according to which both Central African Republic government forces and Russian forces shot dead civilians in the Bambari Mosque on February 15, 2021, “despite the known presence”. of civilians and with no respect for the religious character of the building.”
“According to eyewitnesses met by the panel, no effort was made to distinguish between civilians and militants,” the UN report said, adding that both local troops and “Russian instructors entered the building and continued shooting in the mosque, as confirmed by.” Photo evidence. According to local sources, 17 people were killed in the fighting, including at least one woman who was hit by a stray bullet. However, some of the victims were actually UPC [rebel] The panel also confirmed that at least six of those killed were civilians.
A photo included in a June 25, 2021 letter from a United Nations panel of experts on the Central African Republic shows gunfire damage and a burn mark on the carpet at Al Taqwa Mosque in the city of Bambari. United Nations
However, CBS News’ investigation revealed that the day was not the only killing of the Bambari Mosque, where civilians were killed. Witnesses report that people were shot indiscriminately across the city.
families destroyed
Many of the bodies were taken to a local pharmacy, which was converted into a makeshift clinic. The facility was run by a local named Moubarak. He meticulously counted the bodies and wrote down the names of more than 100 people killed that day, most of them civilians.
“Moubarak,” a local who documented the mass killing of civilians in the city of Bambari, Central African Republic, in February 2021 and has not been seen since his kidnapping not long after. Handout/CBS News
Shortly thereafter, Moubarak was kidnapped. He just disappeared, along with his list – his evidence. His grieving family assumes he is dead. They even held a small funeral to mourn him.
Usman told us one of the names on Moubarak’s list was that of his 25-year-old brother, who was escaping from the gold mine to help their mother and sister Alzina when he was shot.
“In the Wagner group there is no difference between civilians or army, male or female. A woman was shot dead in the street and my brother ran to my mother to sound the alarm,” Usman told CBS News. “A sniper shot him while he was running. He was a civilian.”
A family photo shows the 25-year-old brother of “Usman,” who Usman says was shot dead by Russian Wagner mercenaries while trying to alert his mother and sister, in the city of Bambari, Central African Republic, on February 15, 2021 .Handout for the family
Alzina, Usman’s sister, was also able to escape that day. She had a blank expression on her face as she related what had happened.
“When they entered our house, they ordered all the men to leave the house. Some were arrested, others were killed outright,” she said. “Many didn’t come back.”
Alzina was taken to a Wagner base, but the memories of what happened there were too traumatic to say out loud. At that moment our interview was interrupted and we had to move to another location for security reasons. Alzina’s brother picked up the story. She was raped, Usman later told us, and it was a terrible shame in her community, making it almost impossible to talk about.
“She begged my forgiveness and said she might as well be dead now,” he said.
We met another of Usman’s sisters who suffered a similar fate.
“They raped her in our house … it became Wagner’s house where they drank and did these heinous acts,” Usman said.
The women haven’t spoken out about it since, but it’s clear that Usman carries the burden of his two sisters’ pain. During our interviews, he frequently burst into tears.
“What has my family ever done to Vladimir Putin?” he asked. “When will the international community expel Wagner from our country?”
It’s an achingly familiar cry across half the world in Ukraine, where people are wondering how many more lives will be claimed by Putin’s bloody war and how many names will be added to the staggering list of victims of Russia’s and Wagner’s alleged war crimes.
When asked to comment on this story, the Wagner group dismissed CBS News’ questions as “rude and provocative” and insisted the company “did not commit those crimes.”
“This fact can be confirmed by the documents held by the Government of the Central African Republic,” Wagner’s statement said. “We therefore ask you to contact the government.”
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