{"id":18404,"date":"2024-12-04T13:25:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/central-african-republic-unveils-statue-in-honour-of-russias-wagner-founder-yevgeny-prigozhin\/"},"modified":"2024-12-04T13:25:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:25:58","slug":"central-african-republic-unveils-statue-in-honour-of-russias-wagner-founder-yevgeny-prigozhin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/central-african-republic-unveils-statue-in-honour-of-russias-wagner-founder-yevgeny-prigozhin\/","title":{"rendered":"Central African Republic unveils statue in honour of Russia’s Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A monument in honour of the late leader of Russia\u2019s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been unveiled in the Central African Republic (CAR).<\/p>\n

The statue of Prigozhin, who died in a place crash last year, was installed in the capital Bangui, alongside that of his right-hand man Dmitru Utkin.<\/p>\n

The statue shows Prigozhin in bullet-proof clothing holding a walkie-talkie next to his colleague who holds an AK-47 rifle.<\/p>\n

Fighters from the Wagner Group have been in CAR since 2018, when they were invited by President Faustin-Archange Touad\u00e9ra to help tackle rebel groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The group\u2019s subsidiaries went on win contracts to operate gold and diamond mines.<\/p>\n

They are also operating in several other African countries but their most significant presence is in CAR.<\/p>\n

A statement by the CAR national police said the monument was “part of the bilateral relationship” between CAR and Russia.<\/p>\n

The ceremony to unveil the statues was attended by Defence Minister Rameau Claude Bireau and top military officials.<\/p>\n

Prigozhin and Utkin died alongside others on 23 August 2023, after their private jet came down north-west of Moscow, killing all those on board.<\/p>\n

It came two months after their aborted mutiny in Russia. The Kremlin denied speculation it was to blame for the crash.<\/p>\n

The Wagner Group has since been renamed Corps Africa, although it continues to operate under the Wagner name in CAR.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Flower have been laid at the statue<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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President Touad\u00e9ra has defended their continued presence in the country.<\/p>\n

“It was said that 80% of the territory was occupied by armed groups. Today, thanks to this co-operation, these figures are completely reversed,” he told the BBC in an interview last December.<\/p>\n

Even before the inauguration of the Prigozhin statue, Russia’s role in the country was already immortalised by a statue in Bangui, of Russian troops shielding a woman and her children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CAR has one of the world’s poorest populations despite being rich in diamonds, gold, oil and uranium.<\/p>\n

It has been almost continuously unstable since independence from France in 1960.<\/p>\n

Violence has subsided in recent years, although fighting does still occasionally erupt between rebels and the Wagner-backed national army.<\/p>\n

Critics say President Toudera’s government is supported by the Russian mercenaries and other groups in exchange for exploiting the country\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n

Prigozhin founded Wagner in 2014, initially working mostly in the Middle East and Africa before being deployed to Ukraine at the start of 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

You may also be interested in:<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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AFP A monument in honour of the late leader of Russia\u2019s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been unveiled in the Central African Republic (CAR). The statue of Prigozhin, who died in a place crash last year, was installed in the capital Bangui, alongside that of his right-hand man Dmitru Utkin. The statue shows Prigozhin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18406,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18404\/revisions\/18406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}