Despite tensions, the president of C. Africa claims he is “not against France.”
In an interview that came after years of tension fueled by the CAR’s warming connections with Russia, the president of the Central African Republic expressed his nation’s desire for strong relations with France.
In an interview with AFP and TV5 Monde in France, President Faustin Archange Touadera stated, “We are not against France.”
“France’s new ambassador to the Central African Republic has just been delivered to me. This indicates that there is ongoing cooperation between France and the Central African Republic, and we work to strengthen and improve it for the benefit of both of our peoples.
In 2013, the once colonial nation of France intervened militarily in the notoriously unstable CAR to assist in quelling a sectarian civil war.
The UN peacekeepers’ deployment and subsequent action opened the door for Touadera’s victory in the 2016 elections.
He was controversially re-elected in 2020, and his fans want him to seek for a third term. When asked about this in the interview, he declined to answer.
After Touadera invited paramilitaries from Russia’s Wagner organization to help train his military forces in 2018, ties between France and the CAR started to deteriorate.
In 2020, when rebel factions pressed on the city ahead of the elections, hundreds more Russian operatives and Rwandan soldiers were sent in to support his regime.
Last December, France withdrew its final troops from the CAR as social media hatred increased.
Touadera, 66, responded, “There is no reason why this relationship can’t continue… the Russian authorities themselves have stated as much,” when asked about his relationship with Russia.
“The Central African Republic is a country that seeks to have good relationships with all countries that wish to work with us, including France and the Russian Federation,” he said in the interview on Wednesday at the presidential palace.
“Today, we are pursuing diplomatic efforts to allow our nation to profit from (all) potential forms of cooperation,”
Rights organizations and other watchdogs have accused Wagner of committing crimes against humanity and pillaging mineral wealth in Africa in exchange for the support of weak regimes.
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s organization mounted a brief mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, casting doubt on the organization’s future.
However, a private security firm connected to Wagner claimed to have sent out a fresh group of “instructors” in the CAR before the constitutional vote on July 30.
The two-term limit would be eliminated and the presidential term would be increased from five to seven years, removing all legal barriers to Touadera’s bid for a third term.
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