ABUJA, Nigeria — Russia’s notorious Wagner group has abandoned dozens of former Central African Republic (CAR) rebels in Ukraine’s Donbas region after recruiting them to fight Vladimir Putin’s war, it said. two former CAR fighters to The Daily Beast.
The CAR sources, who were recruited by Wagner after leaving the Union for Peace (UPC) rebel group last December, said many of the 100 or so ex-UPC fighters currently in Ukraine have lost contact with Wagner after the group had trained and flown them. about eight months ago to the Donbas region.
“Some of our colleagues called us [on the phone] to inform us that the Russian soldiers who took them to eastern Ukraine sent them to a certain city and left them alone to fight,” Ali, who was not part of the group sent to Ukraine, told to The Daily Beast. “At this point, they haven’t been paid for months and can’t even feed themselves.” (The Daily Beast has changed the names of the Black Russians in the story to protect them from possible retaliation.)
Some ex-UPC recruits, often referred to as “Black Russians” by many in the CAR, now have to “steal from civilians” to survive the hardships in Ukraine, Ali said.
In February, the same month Russia invaded Ukraine, more than 200 former UPC rebels traveled to Moscow for military training originally expected to last weeks at a Wagner camp, according to senior CAR military officials who spoke with The Hague in March. Daily Beast spoke. Only half returned to the country that month, while the rest remained in Russia for deployment to Ukraine.
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“Mid March, everyone [the Black Russians] were in eastern Ukraine fighting for Russia,” Hassan, who – like Ali – was not among the Black Russians sent to Ukraine but has been in contact with some of his colleagues there, told The Daily Beast. “But our people are now saying that they have left them to fend for themselves [Russian] commanders. Nobody pays attention to them.”
The situation is “terrible” for black Russians in Ukraine, according to Hassan, who said he spoke to three of his colleagues in November and that they all fear for their lives. “They told me they don’t even have ammunition to fight,” Hassan said. “Some of them have not been seen by their colleagues for months.”
Prior to joining Wagner, the rebels were part of a coalition of fighters from major rebel groups formed in 2020 to disrupt a Central African general election.
Last December, hundreds of UPC rebels, whose leader Ali Darassa was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) about a year ago, began surrendering to the CAR government. Both the government and the Wagner group offered incentives to rebels to leave the UPC, including promises that the fighters would work closely with CAR troops and Wagner mercenaries to fight other rebels. Fighters like Ali and Hassan – both in their thirties – switched sides, hoping they would be well taken care of. But like their colleagues who are currently in Ukraine, things are not much better for them at home.
According to both Ali and Hassan, Black Russians have not received wages for most of the year from Wagner or the CAR government, which promised to give them a monthly stipend. Yet they continue to work closely with Wagner in the fight against rebel groups in the country that have united under the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) and are trying to overthrow the government of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
“It’s very difficult to work with the Russians because they don’t trust any of us,” Hassan said. “Often they let us travel around the country with them without telling us exactly where we are going.”
But what worries Ali and Hassan most is the fact that dozens of their colleagues in CAR have disappeared without a trace in recent months.
“In the last two months, up to 50 of our colleagues have mysteriously disappeared,” said Ali. “Nobody knows where they are and the Russians don’t answer questions about their whereabouts.”
There is suspicion among Black Russians in CAR that their missing colleagues may have been sent to Ukraine to fight for Russia, but “no one knows for sure,” Ali said.
“There are also a few people who suspect they were sent on a dangerous mission at home or abroad and died in the process,” Ali said. “Maybe no one will ever know the truth because these Russians do everything in secret.”
Fearing that they too could go missing, Ali and Hassan decided just last week to retreat to Wagner. They’re not the only ones. According to both men, as many as 30 former UPC rebels have recently left the group. A local publication put the number of Black Russians divorced from Wagner to date at 40.
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Neither the CAR government nor Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close friend of Putin who heads the Wagner Group, have responded to emails sent to them by The Daily Beast asking for comment on Ali and Hassan’s allegations. Emails to the CAR government spokesman and to Concord Management, a company in which Prigozhin has a majority stake, went unanswered.
A significant number of Black Russians continue to work with the Wagner Group despite allegations of ill-treatment and mysterious disappearances. But for those who have had enough of the excesses of the organization, there is no better time to say goodbye.
“If we didn’t leave, one day people would also say we’re missing,” Hassan said. “With these Russians anything is possible.”
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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