In the Central African Republic (SAR), a monument was unveiled in honor of the late leader of the Russian private mercenary Wagner Group (known as the Wagner Group), Yevgeny Prigozhin. TASR informs about this according to Wednesday’s BBC News report.
The statue of Prigozhin and his assistant Dmitry Utkin, who died in a plane crash last year, stands in the capital Bangui. It shows Prigozhin in a bulletproof vest with a walkie-talkie in his hand, his colleague standing next to him with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Fighters from Wagner’s group were invited to the SAR in 2018 by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra to help intervene against rebel groups. Subsidiaries of the group subsequently won contracts to operate gold and diamond mines. The Wagners also operate in other African countries, but they have the most significant representation in the SAR.
A statement from local police said the memorial was “part of bilateral relations” between the SAR and Russia. The unveiling ceremony was attended by SAR Defense Minister Rameau Claude Bireau and top military officials.
Prigozhin and Utkin were killed on 23 August 2023 after a private plane crashed northwest of Moscow, killing all on board. This happened two months after their failed rebellion against the Kremlin, which denies speculation that it bears responsibility for the accident. The Wagner Group has since been renamed Corps Africa, although it still operates under its original name in the SAR.
Touadéra defends the presence of foreign mercenaries in his country. “It was said that 80 percent of the territory is occupied by armed groups. Today, thanks to this collaboration, these numbers are completely reversed,” Touadéra told BBC News last December.
The vast majority of the people of the SAR live in extreme poverty, although the country is rich in diamonds, gold, oil and uranium. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, it has been almost continuously unstable. Violence has subsided in recent years, although fighting between the rebels and the army, backed by Wagner’s group, continues to occur sporadically.
Prigozhin founded Wagner’s group in 2014. Initially, it operated mainly in the Middle East and Africa, until the uprising in the summer of 2023, it also fought in Ukraine.
