EKOK, Cameroon — It was just before 5 a.m. local time when two pickup trucks believed to be transporting mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group pulled up in front of Zaza and five other men who were patrolling near the Chimbolo gold mine in the Central African Republic.
Vigilantes – who are among hundreds of men who were pulled from the village of Chimbolo to stop crooks and robbers attacking the buildings and electrical installations in the high-crime area – were on the road leading to the gold mine on Sunday near the eastern town of Bambari. They referred to the men in the pickups as “white soldiers” who were dressed in the same military uniforms often worn by the Russian mercenary group.
“A white soldier in one of the vehicles got out of the car and ordered us out of the area,” Zaza, the leader of the vigilante, who prefers to be identified by his nickname, told The Daily Beast. “He said he and his colleagues would be responsible for securing the area.”
About 10 minutes later, vigilantes said they heard a loud explosion at the Chimbolo gold mine, which was occupied by Chinese workers after it opened last week. They said the explosion was followed by the sound of gunshots that lasted for more than an hour. “We could even hear the screams of the people in the gold mine,” Zaza said. “It sounded like they were screaming for help.”
According to the vigilantes, the same vehicles that were transporting the Russians to the gold mine were allegedly seen exiting the site and exiting on the same road they drove to the mine, the witnesses told The Daily Tier. “In the cars were the same people that we saw before,” Zaza said.
The Wagner group at an unknown location.
Courtesy of the Security Service of Ukraine
The vigilantes then stormed into the gold mine, where they allegedly found the security forces, local Central Africans, tied up – with bodies strewn around them on the ground.
“We counted nine dead Chinese men,” another vigilante who was at the scene after the attack told The Daily Beast. “Two other Chinese men and a Central African soldier had gunshot wounds, mostly to their hands and legs, but were alive when we saw them.”
Shortly after the incident, without providing evidence, the CAR’s Russia-allied government said the attack was a “terrorist act” carried out by militants from the Patriots for Change (CPC) Coalition – a coalition of major rebel groups in the country of the Central African Republic established in 1997 December 2020 to disrupt the 2020–21 Central African general election. Their aim, according to government spokesman Ghislain Djori, “is to deter investors who want to support the efforts of the President of the Republic, Faustin Archange Touadera”.
After the attack, the government promised that “perpetrators of this crime will be hunted down to their last entrenchment,” but the fact that it blames the CPC, which in turn has accused the Wagner group of carrying out the killings, has it done led to suspicions of a cover-up to protect the Russians.
aftermath
The attack on Chimbolo coincided with a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has called for “severe punishment” for those behind it, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week.
A dispute with China as a result of the Chimbolo killings is something Putin is keen to avoid. While Russia is reeling in a military and economic quagmire over the war in Ukraine, China has emerged as Russia’s biggest diplomatic, financial and technological backer.
The allegation that Wagner was involved in the attack will likely strain relations between Russia and China, which has continued to provide “non-lethal” aid to Moscow throughout the war and has been short on arms shipments — until now.
It is unclear if both leaders discussed the incident. China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that China had dispatched a team to the mine and “an embassy working group [in CAR’s capital, Bangui] rushed to the site to coordinate the response to the attack.”
“Rebels don’t usually kill foreigners, they kidnap them and demand ransom for their release,” said Ali, a former fighter with the rebel group Union for Peace (UPC) who also previously worked for the Wagner group in Central African Republic. told The Daily Beast under a pseudonym. “This is an attack only the Russians can carry out.”
Russian mercenaries in northern Mali.
Courtesy of the French Armed Forces
Even the CAR’s National Assembly, which usually agrees with the government’s position, does not point the finger at the rebels. Rather, she has accused foreign mercenaries of being behind the attack (although no specific country was mentioned in a statement by the first vice-president of the National Assembly, Évariste Ngamana).
For years, French companies dominated the mining industry in CAR, a former French colony. But since Russian mercenaries – invited by the Central African government to help fight rebels seeking power – became very active in the impoverished African nation some five years ago, Russian companies linked to Wagner -chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, completed the mining business in the country but theirs by chasing away both local and foreign miners who were active there prior to their arrival.
According to those who have worked closely with the Wagner Group, China’s recent attempt to break into the lucrative sector may have been seen as a threat to Russia’s mining business in the country.
“The Russians don’t want anyone else to take control of any mining area [in CAR] unless you’re Russian,” said Ali, the former member of Wagner’s local wing known as the “Black Russians.” “It’s worse when you’re a foreigner. They’ll make sure you’re dead so you won’t find a way to come back in the future.”
breaking point
Reports of Russian paramilitaries targeting foreign miners in Central African Republic are not new. Last June, a report from The Guardian revealed that dozens of migrant miners were slaughtered and some buried in mass graves in at least three attacks by Wagner mercenaries in the past year. This was followed in July by a report from Middle East Eye that around 100 gold miners from Sudan, Chad and Niger were killed during a massacre by Wagner troops in the Central African Republic’s eastern Andaha region in what was reportedly a desperate Russian attempt to gain control of the flow of gold and diamonds that could help Moscow deal with the sanctions hit brought on by Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine.
In Chimbolo, two locals who live near the gold mine operated by Gold Coast Group, a Chinese company, told The Daily Beast that they saw vehicles carrying “white soldiers” days before the attacks, including on the day patrolling the area The mine opened last week.
“I saw her [patrolling the area] very early in the morning and late at night,” Elog Yambere, a local bricklayer, told The Daily Beast. “They didn’t always use the same vehicle when they showed up.”
A local CAR defense official told The Daily Beast that China wants to conduct its own investigation, separate from that of the CAR authorities.
“A lot of people are pointing fingers at Wagner, and that could lead to disaster.”
CAR authorities hope to complete their own investigation before the end of the month, according to the defense official, who said “everyone,” including the Wagner group, is a suspect in the attack. But not everyone may have access to government intelligence.
“We will present our findings solely to the President,” said the official, who spoke privately to The Daily Beast. “Only the President can decide what happens to it afterwards.”
The Wagner group has not publicly commented on Chimbolo’s attack. The Daily Beast reached out to Prigozhin for comment, but emails to Concord Management, a company majority-owned by the Wagner financier, went unanswered.
At the moment, the Central African Republic government is taking desperate measures to avoid a political row with Beijing. President Faustin Archange Touadera, who is yet to comment personally on the incident, is reportedly planning to travel to China to reassure investors that they are safe in the country.
“If Touadera doesn’t handle this very well, we could see a dispute between CAR and China on the one hand and tensions between China and Russia on the other hand, especially if China is convinced that Wagner carried out the killings,” said Wilfried M’Vondo, a member of the ruling United Hearts Movement party, told The Daily Beast. “Right now, a lot of people are pointing fingers at Wagner, and that could lead to disaster.”