Armed ViolenceNews

40 Killed, Others Injured In Attack By Russian Mercenaries On Besson, CAR

Russian mercenaries in CAR continue to perpetrate different criminalities without question in the country.

At least 40 civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Security Group on the locality of Besson, situated in the Nana-Mambere prefecture to the northwest of the Central African Republic.

According to local security sources, the dead included women, aged persons, and children.

“The massacres took place this Tuesday, Sept. 7 in the afternoon in the village situated about 40 kilometres from Diba on the Baboua highway,” a source in Nassoya told HumAngle.

“The locality is a camp inhabited by Peuhl herdsmen and among the persons murdered were aged persons, women and children some of whom were less than five years old.”

Several survivors of the attack  crossed the border to frontier villages in Cameroon while some fled into nearby bushes to save themselves from the  Russian mercenaries.

Last month, Russian mercenaries of Wagner killed 40 Peuhls in the villages of Bouzou, Sanguere, Tourwa, Sabewa and Babba situated near the border with Cameroon.

The government in Bangui has always maintained a silence after most of these massacres and several opinion and political leaders in the Central African Republic are saying it is time the International Criminal Tribunal starts investigating the numerous allegations of Russian atrocities in the Central African Republic.

“The government authorities also have to be called to book by the international judicial system. In less than nine months, the number of civilians killed by the Russian mercenaries is more than those who were killed by Congolese rebels under the control of Jean-Pierre Bemba in the Central African Republic,” an individual who gave his name as Georges Panza and claimed to be a civil society activist told HumAngle in Bangui the capital.

“Bemba was eventually tried and jailed by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Even the fighters of Captain Eugene Ngaikosset did not massacre as many people in Paoua in the northwest of the country as the Russians have so far done. The victims of the Wagner Security Group must not remain anonymous. They must be identified and those responsible for their murders made to answer for their crimes.”

Summary not available.


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Chief Bisong Etahoben

Chief Bisong Etahoben is a Cameroonian investigative journalist and traditional ruler. He writes for international media and has participated in several transnational investigations. Etahoben won the first-ever Cameroon Investigative Journalist Award in 1992. He serves as a member of a number of international investigative journalism professional bodies including the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR). He is HumAngle's Francophone and Central Africa editor.

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