AP: 11 people killed at Wagner-controlled gold mine in Central African Republic

At least 11 people have been shot dead while more are still missing after mercenaries from Russia’s notorious Wagner Group opened fire at a gold mine under their control in the Central African Republic (CAR), the AP reported on Friday, citing residents and humanitarian workers.

The shootings, which one resident told the AP targeted individuals searching for gold residue and gravel, took place on Wednesday night at Ndassima gold mine, 450 kilometres east of Bangui, the country’s capital.

“Unemployed young people have no choice but to go to this site at night for the gravel,” they said.

Two aid workers, speaking anonymously for fear of being targeted, confirmed to the AP that the victims were primarily young people from surrounding villages and that most were summarily shot.

According to the AP, residents of nearby villages are forbidden from accessing the Wagner-controlled mine.

Authorities have not yet confirmed any details of the violence, nor have local officials responded to inquiries about the shootings, the AP said.

The Wagner Group, which has a significant military footprint in several other African countries, including Mali, has been accused by human rights groups of carrying out extrajudicial killings in the CAR with little accountability since arriving there in 2018, with the stated aim of helping to fight rebel groups.

In early 2024, the Russian Defence Ministry absorbed many former Wagner fighters into the newly-established Africa Corps, a paramilitary structure designed to protect Russian military and economic interests in African countries.

According to estimates made in October 2024 by the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR), the number of Africa Corps fighters in the CAR is around 2,000, with roughly another 1,000 in Mali, 100 in Burkina-Faso, and smaller contingents in both Niger and Sudan.

In the CAR, Wagner mercenaries have also provided personal protection to President Faustin Archange Touadera, who won a controversial constitutional referendum in July 2023 that gave him the ability to extend his rule indefinitely.

In December, a monument to Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s late chief, who was killed in a plane crash in August 2023, was unveiled in Bangui, the CAR’s capital.