00:00 Trezor Adum has never met Nusim Yevgeny Prigozhin, yet he is a pro-Wagner supporter and a staunch
00:09 believer in the group's presence here in the Central African Republic.
00:13 Today, Trezor and his friends are paying tribute to Prigozhin at this Wagner statue in the
00:19 heart of the capital.
00:21 They want to show their respects to the head of the Wagner group after his death in an
00:27 inexplicable plane crash in Russia on the 23rd of August.
00:31 "We cannot measure the greatness or the added value of what the Wagners have brought to
00:38 the Central African Republic.
00:41 In previous years we have had peacekeeping missions, missions that were sent to the Central
00:46 African Republic to secure our borders, but what did this achieve in terms of results?
00:52 What have we seen?
00:53 What have we known?
00:54 We have only known repeated coups.
00:56 We must support Russia so that we can never again speak of such a rebellion in the Central
01:01 African Republic."
01:09 The Central African Republic has been in the midst of a series of civil wars since 2003,
01:14 which left three quarters of the territory under rebel control.
01:22 The estimated 1,000 Wagner mercenaries stationed in the Central African Republic first came
01:26 to the country in 2018 to help the government of President Touadéra defeat rebel forces
01:32 and fill in a security vacuum left by France after it withdrew its military forces from
01:38 the country in 2016.
01:40 A lot of people in the Central African Republic think the Wagner group, together with the
01:44 Rwandan troops, have done more to quell the country's many rebellions than the French
01:49 and the UN forces combined.
01:52 Rebel foreign observers accused the Russian paramilitary of committing atrocities.
01:57 The majority of the civilians here think their successes are worth the price.
02:05 But while the Wagner group has many supporters in the country, it also has its opponents.
02:11 The Central African Republic opposition leader, Mohamed Kamoun, was a former prime minister
02:16 in President Catherine Samba Panza's transitional government and is currently leader of the
02:22 Bé-Afrika-Tikwe opposition party, meaning the Central African Republic for us all.
02:28 He says the mercenaries don't belong in the Central African Republic.
02:33 Not only is it a group which does not come to help to develop and foster peace in Africa,
02:41 this group is made up of people who came for self-interest and benefits.
02:46 Whether it's the Charter of the African Union or the Charter of the United Nations, the
02:50 activity of the Wagners is banned.
02:52 They have come for the wrong cause and the wrong reason.
02:55 Today Central Africans are paying the price for their negative presence since the Wagners
02:59 came in here.
03:00 They exploit our timber, our mines, trade, etc.
03:04 They have created unfair competition in terms of security.
03:08 A country like CAR should instead rely on credible partners.
03:14 With Prigojin's death, the question on many minds is whether the Wagner group will continue
03:19 its operations in the Central African Republic, but this time under Kremlin authority.
03:24 And if so, what will happen to the country if Russia withdraws the soldiers due to the
03:29 pressures of the war in Ukraine?
03:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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