Security firm Bancroft Global Development is seeking to manage mining sites in the Central African Republic (CAR), following a push by Washington to stop the former French colony relying on Russian-backed Wagner mercenaries.
said Radio France International (RFI). that representatives from the US-based company were in talks with CAR about providing trained, equipped units to protect locations in the country where armed groups operate.
The publication African Intelligence had reported in September that talks had taken place in the CAR capital, Bangui, between Bancroft and the country’s president Faustin-Archange Touadera. Russian military bloggers also noted the reports.
Bancroft operates in areas affected by armed conflict, with a particular focus on Somalia, where it provides capacity building for the Somali National Army and the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
The New York Times reported in 2011 that the State Department had “indirectly funded” Bancroft to help the fight against the Somali militant group al-Shabab.
RFI said Bancroft officials were already in Bangui and that the private military company (PMC) was trying to “establish a well-equipped, trained and supervised Central African unit” to control and protect mining concessions. It was looking for land near the capital, “to develop its technical means, especially observation drones.”
Bancroft could also help train rangers to develop hunting trips for wealthy foreign tourists, RFI added.
Anonymous sources close to the CAR president told the French broadcaster that Bancroft is in the country “but not yet operational” and that negotiations are ongoing and nothing has been signed.
The State Department told RFI that the US had not requested Bancroft’s participation in the CAR. Newsweek Bancroft and the State Department were contacted for comment.
Tuadera’s personal security detail reportedly consists of Wagner members, and in July he attended the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, where he met with Vladimir Putin and expressed his support for Moscow.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had suggested alternatives for Team Wagner over Touadera in 2022. Le Monde mentionted.
Wagner was headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin and offered the Kremlin a footprint in Africa. Its future on the continent has become uncertain since his death in a plane crash, following his rebellion against Vladimir Putin that saw military installations in Russia seized and an advance on Moscow.
RFI said Bancroft visited Bangui shortly after a trip by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, during which he assured CAR that Moscow was committed to the country after Prigozhin’s death and that the Kremlin would take over Wagner.
RFI said the US was seeking “to compete with Wagner on its soil, marking the end of Russian hegemony over [CAR’s] institutions.”
Wagner’s mercenaries control major mining facilities such as the Ndassima gold mine in the center of the country, the Center for International Strategic Studies said.
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