The government of the Central African Republic reported Monday that a plane bombed the base of the Central African Defense Forces and those of its Russian «allies» in the western city of Bossangoa on Sunday night.
«These explosives caused significant material damage,» the government said in a statement, explaining that after bombing the military camp and a cotton factory, the aircraft flew over the town of Bouzum, capital of Ouham-Pendé, after which it «headed north» before «crossing the borders».
He also indicated that he had opened a judicial inquiry to gather all available information in order to apportion responsibilities, adding that «this ignoble act perpetrated by enemies will not go unpunished».
UN Secretary General António Guterres «strongly» condemned on Sunday an attack perpetrated on November 24 at the Obo airfield in the southeast of the country, which resulted in the death of a Moroccan member of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
The presence of the UN mission has been a source of tension with the Central African government, whose president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, has on several occasions defended the deployment of Russian forces in the country to support the army’s operations against the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC).
The Wagner Group has sent mercenaries to several African countries in recent years – among them Mali, Libya and CAR – which has raised suspicions among several Western countries, especially the United States and France, about Moscow’s involvement in several conflicts on the continent.
