I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while... but when it first popped up I didn't bother and then weeks and months rolled by... plus there was stuff going on in Ethiopia and Nigeria and Mozambique but... might as well start a thread about the randomness going on in the Central African Republic and the involvement of Russia and Russian PMC's there. The CAR AFAIK has always been politically instable or repressive but people in the West are finally caring/noticing now because Russia tied up in there now.
So just some brief notes on the Central African Republic. It was ruled by a Dictator named Jean-Bedel Bokassa from 1965 to 1979 and who for a time wanted his backwater former French colony known as the Central African Empire. That didn't work out too well and after machine gunning over a hundred students and children who were protesting his regimes corruption (in this particular case forcing students to purchase apparel from a company owned by one of his many wives) France intervened and removed him from government.
Within two years another military junta took over but by 1986 General Kolingba started to slowly introduce democractic and constitutional measures until he agreed to free and fair elections in 1993 and stepped down from power, allowing the democratically elected government under Ange-Felix Patasse to take over. He purged the government of much of its junta elements over the next decade but this sparked resentment and the military launched several coups and rebellions and in response Patasse employed foreign Rebel groups as mercenaries to maintain the government. In 2003 this resulted in a successful coup, backed by Chad, under General Francois Bozize to take over the country while Patasse was away.
From 2004 onward, Bozize has been in charge but the country basically was plagued by fraudulent elections and Civil Wars with numerous interventions by various groups ranging and sparked two major Civil Wars, the Central African Bush War which lasted until 2007 and the currently ongoing Central African Republic Civil War which started in 2012, sparked by widely fraudulent elections and continues on to this day. Several thousand French, AU and UN peackeepers were located in the country during this time at various points as well. Some of the recent events that occurred include...
A Rebel Coalition, called Seleka, took control of the country from Bozize in 2013 and placed it under the control of Michel Djotodia who was backed by primarily Muslim militias. Djotodia eventually resigned early in 2014 under pressure due to large amounts of Christian-Muslim sectarian fighting that was taking place. That didn't end the Sectarian Violence however as roughly ten major different groups fought for control of the country until 2016...
That was when during a runoff of the 2015 elections, the ironically named Faustin-Archange Touadera was elected President of the Central African Republic. The elections were hampered by obvious security issues but was determined to be largely successful in spite of such. However in the subsequent formation of the government, no members of the Seleka or numerous other militia backed opposition groups was given posts in the new government.
In 2017 Russia became involved in the conflict, in a role where Russian instructors, several hundred of them, were advising and supporting President Touadera's faction during the still ongoing Sectarian conflict as well as providing his personal bodyguard unit. In response to this, six of the major Rebel Groups who control about two thirds of the country formed a... *coughs* Rebel Alliance to challenge the probably Democratically elected President and his Russian backers.
U.S. Urges Russia To Stop Violence In Central African Republic After Damning UN Report
Russian military instructors and Central African Republic (CAR) forces they are supporting have carried out indiscriminate killings, used excessive force against civilians, and looted in the war-torn country, according to a UN report.
www.rferl.org
So just some brief notes on the Central African Republic. It was ruled by a Dictator named Jean-Bedel Bokassa from 1965 to 1979 and who for a time wanted his backwater former French colony known as the Central African Empire. That didn't work out too well and after machine gunning over a hundred students and children who were protesting his regimes corruption (in this particular case forcing students to purchase apparel from a company owned by one of his many wives) France intervened and removed him from government.
Within two years another military junta took over but by 1986 General Kolingba started to slowly introduce democractic and constitutional measures until he agreed to free and fair elections in 1993 and stepped down from power, allowing the democratically elected government under Ange-Felix Patasse to take over. He purged the government of much of its junta elements over the next decade but this sparked resentment and the military launched several coups and rebellions and in response Patasse employed foreign Rebel groups as mercenaries to maintain the government. In 2003 this resulted in a successful coup, backed by Chad, under General Francois Bozize to take over the country while Patasse was away.
From 2004 onward, Bozize has been in charge but the country basically was plagued by fraudulent elections and Civil Wars with numerous interventions by various groups ranging and sparked two major Civil Wars, the Central African Bush War which lasted until 2007 and the currently ongoing Central African Republic Civil War which started in 2012, sparked by widely fraudulent elections and continues on to this day. Several thousand French, AU and UN peackeepers were located in the country during this time at various points as well. Some of the recent events that occurred include...
A Rebel Coalition, called Seleka, took control of the country from Bozize in 2013 and placed it under the control of Michel Djotodia who was backed by primarily Muslim militias. Djotodia eventually resigned early in 2014 under pressure due to large amounts of Christian-Muslim sectarian fighting that was taking place. That didn't end the Sectarian Violence however as roughly ten major different groups fought for control of the country until 2016...
That was when during a runoff of the 2015 elections, the ironically named Faustin-Archange Touadera was elected President of the Central African Republic. The elections were hampered by obvious security issues but was determined to be largely successful in spite of such. However in the subsequent formation of the government, no members of the Seleka or numerous other militia backed opposition groups was given posts in the new government.
In 2017 Russia became involved in the conflict, in a role where Russian instructors, several hundred of them, were advising and supporting President Touadera's faction during the still ongoing Sectarian conflict as well as providing his personal bodyguard unit. In response to this, six of the major Rebel Groups who control about two thirds of the country formed a... *coughs* Rebel Alliance to challenge the probably Democratically elected President and his Russian backers.