As France Prepares to Leave CAR, Expert Recalls How Abuse Scandals ‘Tarnished’ Relations

Across Africa, former colonies long terrorized by the French Army are rejecting their continued presence, ending fruitless training and counterterrorism missions that have all too often led to the abuse, rape, and killing of civilians.

The 62-year-long presence of French troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) is expected to come to an end by the end of the year, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported earlier this week. “Concordant sources” told the agency that the final 130 French troops deployed there on a training mission would be leaving.

The remaining French forces were part of a European Union training mission and based at Camp M’Poko, located at the main airport in the capital of Bangui.

French troops were most recently deployed to the CAR, a former French colony, in 2013, when the United Nations answered calls for help by then-President François Bozizé to fend off the Séléka, a rebel group based in Muslim communities in the country’s north. Paris sent 2,000 troops under Operation Sangaris to work alongside a larger UN peacekeeping force; however, by the time they arrived, Bozizé had already been ousted by the Séléka and replaced by leader Michel Djotodia.

In this file photo taken on February 03, 2021 Families displaced from the conflict watch as a convoy of Moroccan peacekeepers from the United Nations Integrated Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) passes by on the outskirts of Bangassou.

© AFP 2023 / ALEXIS HUGUET

Sangaris ended in 2016, but Bangui kept several hundred French soldiers in the country to train their forces, which were - and are - still fighting a civil war. Paris announced the end of that training deal last year, saying "a number of commitments" Bangui made to Paris had not been kept, including fighting what they claimed were Russian “disinformation networks” aiming to sow anti-French sentiment in the CAR. The African nation had started consulting Russian advisers as well, beginning in 2018.

Cameroonian political analyst Julio Assomo told the Nairobi-based TV network Africa24 on Tuesday that in fact, the French troops generated the ill will against them themselves.

"There are tensions which have increased in recent years which have not contributed to the strengthening of ties between France and the Central African Republic, in particular the sex scandals involving minors which French soldiers were subjected to about seven years ago," Assomo said.

"All of these elements have contributed to tarnishing the quality of relations between France and the CAR while exacerbating an anti-French feeling that has developed in the country in recent years," he added.

The accusations of sexual abuse of girls in the CAR by UN and French troops were brought in 2015, when at least 98 cases were reported, according to Radio France International (RFI). Following an investigation, Paris disciplined five soldiers for abusing two girls, but decided against any further charges.

However, even the job European soldiers were supposed to be doing in CAR was apparently sub-par. During a hearing by the EU Foreign Affairs Committee in February 2021, Spanish MEP Nart Javier said that the five-year training mission that followed Operation Sangaris had failed to produce appreciable results.

“The EU has trained thousands of FACA [CAR Armed Forces] soldiers who are not capable of fighting because the mission’s training mandate is not appropriate,” Javier said. “We make the policy here in Brussels, but it is Bangui that sees the deaths. If we are going to do military training in Africa, then we should do it realistically and effectively.”

Assomo said that the training mission was Paris’ final attempt to “leave its mark in the Central African Republic, not to say ‘keep in touch.’”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera shake hands as they pose for a photo prior to their meeting at the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum in Sochi, Russia

© Sputnik / Mikhail Metzel

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Since the French announced they were leaving, Bangui has taken on more Russian advisers. As of February 2022, a total of 1,135 Russian instructors were operating in the country, training FACA personnel. Moscow says that Russian representatives are not involved in hostilities and were deployed in the CAR with the notification of the UN Security Council. France and the US have accused Moscow of secretly sending the Wagner Group private military contractor to CAR as well, but Moscow has denied any connection to Wagner and the CAR has denied that any such deal with Wagner exists.

Earlier this week, Sputnik reported that the CAR was investigating a case in which claimed security personnel from the US embassy in Bangui were caught filming a FACA air base in Boda, 200 kilometers from the capital.