This January 20, in front of the Central African embassy in Paris, a few dozen opponents of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra gathered to demonstrate despite the cold. If sweaters and coats hide the t-shirts flocked with their demands, a large banner is there to get the message across. “Central African dictator Touadéra, friend of the Wagners… release the deputy Dominique Yandocka”, we can read in large letters.
Since his violent arrest in the early morning of December 15, the name of Yandocka, this opposition deputy from the Initiative for Transformation through Action (ITA) party accused of attempted coup d'état, has been whispered on everyone's lips, from Paris to Bangui. And becomes the symbol of a repression described as arbitrary by Touadéra's adversaries.
In power since 2016, the Central African president had a new draft constitution approved by referendum last August, which should allow him to run for a third term in 2025. The vote, which remains contested, took place under the watchful eye Russian paramilitaries from the Wagner group - more established than ever since their arrival in the country in 2018 - who provided security and logistical support.
Read alsoIn exile, former Central African president François Bozizé sentenced to life imprisonment for “rebellion”
Increase in arrests
With 95.27% yes and more than 60% participation - a record in the Central African Republic - the referendum is described as a charade by the opposition, which forcefully denounces a "constitutional coup d'état", attracting the wrath of the head of state. Since then, dissenting voices have been increasingly silenced.
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The Central African Republic approves a constitutional project paving the way for a new mandate for Touadéra © AFP
The referendum was followed by "active campaigns of intimidation, arrests and arbitrary convictions of political adversaries and troublesome personalities", assures Médard Polisse-Bébé. This executive from the opposition Central African Democratic Rally (DRC, party of former President André Kolingba), known for criticizing Wagner's influence in his country, is now demanding the release of MP Yandocka and his compatriots "who are languishing in prison".
Detained at the feared Roux camp, a large military camp run by Wagner's Russians and the Presidential and Republican Security Guard (GSPR), Dominique Yandocka is accused of "flagrant offense" for "crime of conspiracy". A flagrant offense which, according to the Bangui prosecutor, renders the parliamentary immunity of the accused “ineffective”.
Instrumentalization of justice
“The deputy was at his residence sleeping at 4 a.m.… He could not have committed a crime at the same time,” refutes Crépin Mboli-Goumba, coordinator of the Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution (BRDC), a platform made up of opposition leaders. For this political figure, the prosecutor's press release is an admission of violation of Dominique Yandocka's freedoms and rights.
The President of the Rep. solemnly asked the exiles to return. Dominique Yandoka, deputy of the nation, believed in it. He has returned. He was arbitrarily arrested.
An additional level in the discrediting of public speech and in dictatorship. pic.twitter.com/53wz1HxqN3
— Crépin Mboli-Goumba (@CrepinMboli) December 16, 2023
The MP's lawyers, for their part, continue to highlight the parliamentary immunity which he should enjoy, and denounce an “instrumentalization of justice” on the part of the government. None of their requests for release have yet been heard. The file is at a standstill.
“People are threatened”
“In view of the procedure which is biased, his place is not in prison”, supports Paul-Crescent Beninga, spokesperson for the Civil Society Working Group (GTSC). If he avoids criticizing the substance of the affair, the young leader, himself imprisoned a few years ago for having criticized the admission of rebel leaders to the government, adds that the arrest of the deputy was “premeditated” and that “people are threatened”.
After Yandocka's arrest, other civil, political and military figures were targeted. The latest, Colonel Modoua, commander of the northwest region assigned to Bouar, 500 km west of Bangui. According to his wife, Angèle Modoua, "gendarmes and hooded Russians", arriving in two vehicles, came to arrest him at the beginning of January.
“They brutalized him, handcuffed him and threw him into the vehicle,” before ransacking his office, taking his passport and money, and transferring him to the Research and Investigation Section (SRI) in Bangui, she testifies. He has since been detained at the Roux camp.
Dark outlook
In this same region, Caprang Jeanine Ephraim, mayor of the commune of Baboua, was also caught in the nets of Wagner's mercenaries, accompanied by soldiers of the Central African Armed Forces (Faca). Brutalized then handcuffed, he was then taken in the direction of Bouar. Targeted, the city's sub-prefect, for his part, managed to escape.
Accusations of conspiracy or settling of scores? While no official communication has yet come to give the reason for these arrests, speculation is rife. On January 25, an artisan miner was, in turn, kidnapped by Wagner mercenaries in Lobaye, southwest of Bangui.
“The prospects for 2024 are darker than ever. This is the characteristic of dictatorships when we grant ourselves a tailor-made constitution and dismiss our political opponents,” continues Crépin Mboli-Goumba. American-Central African, the latter is automatically disqualified from the 2025 presidential race by the new constitution, which prohibits dual nationals.
Wagner, Touadéra police force?
But the intimidation perpetrated by Touadéra no longer applies only to official opponents of the regime. At the end of December, the house of a couple of deputies, Bruce Rufin Molomadon and his wife Annie, members of the presidential majority, was searched in the middle of the night by the security forces.
A few weeks earlier, the home of Mahamat Djamil Bana Nani, a businessman suspected of being part of the entourage of Karim Meckassoua - an opponent in exile suspected of plotting against Touadéra - was brutally searched. The latter has since filed a complaint against the group of Russian mercenaries and the Central African police for illegally looting and ransacking his residence.
Already present in many layers of political and security life in the Central African Republic, the influence of the Wagner group is felt even in these searches, carried out in conjunction with the Central Office for the Repression of Banditry (ORCB). Is the Central African Republic “under the supervision” of the Russians, as denounced by opponents who still dare to speak out?
Since the death in August of the founder of the mercenary group, Evguéni Prigojine, the contours of the partnership between Wagner and Touadéra remain to be defined. For several months, the Central African president has sought to diversify his alliances. After traveling to Paris to meet his counterpart Emmanuel Macron in September, the head of state opened the door to the American private security company Bancroft. The latter, which employs mercenaries, recently set foot in Bangui. Since signing a bilateral agreement in 2020, Rwanda has also deployed troops to the Central African Republic.
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