Central African Republic: the founder of the Wagner group accuses France of the attempted assassination of one of its leaders
Evguéni Prigojine accuses France of being responsible for an alleged attack against a figure of the paramilitary group Wagner in the Central African Republic.
Reuters/Reuters/Sergei Ilnitsky
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Evgueni Prigojine, the founder of the Wagner group, accuses France of an assassination attempt against a leader of the Russian paramilitaries in the Central African Republic.
According to the official TASS news agency, Dmitri Siti was seriously injured on Friday December 16 after the explosion of a parcel bomb.
Parcel he would have received at the Russian cultural center in Bangui.
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“
The head of the Russian House received an anonymous package.
He opened it and an explosion occurred
,” Russian news agency TASS reported.
Dmitri Siti, head of the Russian cultural center, leader of the mining company Lobaye Invest and central figure of the Wagner group in the Central African Republic, was hospitalized, the press release continues, with “
serious injuries
”.
On Telegram messaging, the founder of the Russian paramilitary group, Evgueni Prigojine, was quick to point the finger at France.
According to the oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Siti managed to say before he lost consciousness that he had seen the following message: “
This is for you from all the French, the Russians will leave Africa
”.
Evgueni Prigojine says he "
asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to launch a procedure to declare France a state sponsor of terrorism, as well as an in-depth investigation into the terrorist methods of France and its Western allies
".
Attack aims to '
damage
' relations between Moscow and Bangui, Moscow says
The parcel bomb attack that injured a Russian representative in the Central African Republic on Friday was aimed at "
harming
" the development of relations between the two countries, accused the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"We strongly condemn this criminal act which aims (...) to harm the development of friendly relations between our two countries," he said in a statement, without however naming a suspected sponsor.
The supposed attack comes the day after the
departure of the last French soldiers from the Central African Republic
.
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