CAR Investigating Reports US Embassy Personnel Traveled 200 km to Illegally Film Army Base
21:28 GMT 07.10.2022 (Updated: 13:09 GMT 14.11.2022)
© Flickr / hdptcar
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The Central African Gendarmerie paramilitary force is investigating reports that a group of people recently seen filming a Central African Armed Forces (FACA) base was connected to the US embassy in Bangui, a source familiar with the matter told Sputnik.
On September 3, a group of three armored cars with six people in them was reported on the runway of a FACA base in the town of Boda, filming the base and the airfield’s runway. When gendarmes approached and questioned them, they said they were guards from the US embassy in Bangui and had ended up there by accident.
Bangui, the CAR capital, is about 185 kilometers away from Boda by road.
The guards told the gendarmes they were “filming nature.” However, regardless of their subject, filming or photographing sensitive areas without the consent of CAR authorities is illegal in the country.
"Anyone enjoying diplomatic privileges and immunities is required to respect the laws and regulations of the State of residence,” the source told Sputnik.
The US embassy in Bangui has not returned requests by Sputnik for a comment.
Véhicules blindés portant des numéros diplomatiques sur la piste d’atterrissage de Boda
© Sputnik
Ever since the CAR government began to turn to Russia for help fighting numerous rebel groups and away from its long but largely fruitless defense relationship with France, the country’s former colonizer, Western nations have accused Moscow of having surreptitious methods and aims in the country.
Moscow and Bangui have been quite open about the presence of several hundred unarmed, non-combat Russian military advisers in the country, but France and the US have claimed that Moscow has also secretly dispatched Wagner Group, a private military contractor (PMC) with no connection to the Russian government, to the country as well, which they say has committed atrocities against civilians.
Most recently, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, claimed on Thursday that the mercenary group was exploiting natural resources in the CAR and “these ill-gotten gains are used to fund Moscow’s war machine in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine.”
No evidence has been furnished to support these claims. Regardless, Moscow has denied any connection to Wagner and said that if such a contract between the PMC and the CAR government exists, it would not be the business of the Russian government. The CAR has denied that such a deal exists.
Other African governments have made a similar shift in recent years, including Mali, which ejected all French forces earlier this year and provided evidence to the UN of Paris secretly helping the Islamist rebel groups it was supposedly in the country to destroy. Niger has also seen protests against the French military presence, as well as demands for Niamey to look to Moscow for help.
American fury at the stubborn neutrality of African nations has increased since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February. Washington has demanded that all countries take its side, condemn the operation and Russia, and abide by Western economic sanctions. However, they have been rebuked by countries such as South Africa, which has defended its right to be non-aligned, and called on the US to show as much concern for other world crises, such as that in the Palestinian territories, as it does for Ukraine.
