When Central African Republic (CAR) pleaded for help last year to fight marauding militias, former colonial ruler France offered guns it had seized off Somalia. But Russia objected and donated its own weapons instead....MUCH MORE
By early February, Russia had sent nine planes with weapons along with dozens of contractors to train local soldiers and secure mining projects, marking the start of its highest-profile military foray in sub-Saharan Africa for decades.
Muscling in on a country dominated by France for years served as a statement of intent about Moscow's renewed push for global prestige and influence, and is part of a wider campaign shaking up long-standing power dynamics on the continent.
Since Western nations sanctioned Russia for annexing Crimea in 2014, Moscow has signed 19 military cooperation deals in sub-Saharan Africa, including with Ethiopia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, according to its foreign and defence ministries and state media.
The continent's 54 member states at the United Nations – three of which sit on the Security Council at any given time – form the organisation's largest voting bloc and one of its most coherent, making them attractive allies for Russia.
"The West is not very much loved by many countries. And many (see) Russia as the country that will oppose the West," said Dmitri Bondarenko, an anthropologist and historian at Russia's Institute for African Studies.
Besides sending arms and contractors to CAR, Russian national Valery Zakharov is a security adviser to President Faustin-Archange Touadera and Russia's defence ministry said last week it planned to establish a five-person team at CAR's defence ministry.
Russia's moves come at a time when the defence ministry's influence over Kremlin foreign policy is growing against a backdrop of heightened tension with the West.
SEIZED WEAPONSWhen CAR made its plea in 2017, there was recognition that a spike in ethnic fighting could turn into a far larger conflict and that its security forces were too weak to tackle myriad armed groups.
CAR has been under a U.N. arms embargo since 2013 so weapons shipments must be approved by the U.N. Security Council's CAR sanctions committee, made up of the Council's 15 members, including France and Russia. It operates by consensus.
France first offered to help CAR buy old weapons but the proposal was too expensive. France then offered 1,400 AK47 assault rifles it had seized off Somalia in 2016, according to a Security Council memo and four diplomats.
Russia objected on the grounds that weapons seized for breaching the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia could not be recycled for use in another country under embargo, two diplomats said.
But mindful of the need for a quick solution, the sanctions committee approved Moscow's donation of AK47s, sniper rifles, machineguns and grenade launchers in December, according to committee documents and diplomats....
And from Sputnik:
Russia Pledges Continued Support for Central African Republic Security - Envoy
Russia plans to continue providing security assistance to the Central African Republic government in an effort to end a far-flung insurgency in which authorities in the capital of Bangui are attempting to wrest control of much of the nation from more than a dozen rebel groups, Russia’s Envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said.
"Russia will continue to provide support to the CAR [Central African Republic] in reforming its national security sector, including in strengthening the battle readiness and battle capacity of the armed forces of the country," Nebenzia told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Nebenzia noted that Russian military experts have managed to achieve "significant results" by training more than 1,000 soldiers of the CAR army....MORE