Central African Republic: A US security company challenges Wagner’s hegemony in its African stronghold |

Marches, more or less orchestrated, in favor of Wagner have been common in the Central African Republic since the Russian mercenary company arrived in the country almost seven years ago. What was unusual and striking about the rallies last January, which the local press reported, was the appearance of a new graphic symbol, the head of a lion on a blue circle, on one of the banners next to the words “stop.” and “non”. The logo, crossed out, is that of Bancroft Global Development, an American private security company with extensive experience in training military personnel in Somalia. The rallies, on the 24th and 25th, toured the streets of Ndélé and Bangui, the capital. In the latter city, dozens of people came to the vicinity of the United States Embassy with slogans against the “illegal entry” of Americans into the country. Just a few weeks earlier, Bancroft had admitted to holding negotiations with the Central African government for “possible future activities.”

The Central African Republic (5.5 million inhabitants) is Wagner’s great African laboratory; the most successful example of Russian foreign power – Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted last summer to contributing some 860 million euros to the group between 2022 and 2023 – deployed from the shadows through economic, propaganda and military means. It is also a paradigm of a formula repeated on the continent: a country rich in natural resources, including gold and diamonds, with rampant misery and instability – it is ranked 188 out of 191 in the Human Development Index. This, among other things, is why Moscow began in 2017 to build a business and security framework that has earned it strong popular support, after years of clashes between Christian and Muslim militias, and cash in hand through the exploitation of the country’s mines. For Brussels and Washington, Wagner’s adventure has been accompanied by human rights abuses, which is why the group is on their list of sanctioned entities.

At the end of last December, presidential spokesperson Albert Yaloké Mokpème stated in an interview with the popular Radio Ndeke Luka that the country was “diversifying” its security relations, beyond collaboration with Russia, Angola, Morocco or Guinea. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s spokesman added: “The US also offers […] train soldiers, both on Central African soil and on American soil.” A few days later, when asked by the French agency France Presse (AFP), Bancroft admitted the existence since July of a “discussion framework” with Bangui for its future presence in the country. “That’s all,” the security company concluded. Young Africa and Radio France e (RFI) have recently reported that the company has already sent some workers to the African country.

Both the State Department and the US ambassador to the country, Patricia Mahoney, have publicly denied in recent weeks that Washington participated in Bancroft’s decision to enter the Central African Republic, emphasizing that it is a private company. that does not represent the Government. The presence of American soldiers in this country has the precedent of the Obama Administration, which in 2011 sent a group of soldiers to hunt down Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, whose whereabouts are still unknown. In addition to Russian mercenaries, the Central African Republic also hosts a European training mission and a UN contingent.

Experience in Somalia

The first stone of what is now Bancroft Global Development was laid in Virginia 24 years ago by its founder, Michael Stock, a young graduate how praise at Princeton University, scion of a wealthy American banking family. Back then, that company was called Landmine Clearance . Nine years later, the firm adopted its current name, now based in Washington. He soon began serving in his star mission: Somalia.

In this country in the Horn of Africa, shaken by more than three decades of conflict, Bancroft has trained Ugandan and Burundian soldiers from AMISOM (today ATMIS), a mission launched in 2007 by the African Union with support from the UN. Stock’s company, made up of dozens of military experts – along with the Americans, there are also Europeans and South Africans – is behind the formation of the Danab Brigade, one of the most prestigious units in the fight against the fundamentalist militia Al Shabab .

According to the company in the financing section of its website, its largest contributor is the State Department. For example, the US Office of the Inspector General, intended to evaluate public spending, questioned in a report in July 2021 more than four million dollars spent by Bancroft in Somalia and whose origin was the State Department. To finance its operations, the company also has its own investments in the land. In the registry of public purchases made by United Nations agencies, there appear dozens of entries regarding leases of properties of the Bancroft company signed by its mission in Somalia.

Whether with the approval of Washington or not, the movement carried out by this North American security company in the Central African Republic has agitated the faithful of the Wagner group, accused of massacres and torture in the country by the Human Rights Watch organization and UN rapporteurs. And this, seven months after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and main mentor of these mercenaries’ African adventure. Until the disappearance of the St. Petersburg businessman, the Russian Alexander Ivanov, responsible for the group of instructors who landed in 2018 to train the Central African army and protect President Touadéra, was at the top of the leadership of this network in Bangui. According to the French research project All Eyes on Wagner (AEOW), Moscow’s new strongman in this country would be Pavlov Denis Vladimirovich, an agent of the intelligence services under diplomatic cover.

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