The Central African Republic’s latest in a string of attacks on Chinese-run mines has resulted in nine fatalities and two further injuries at a mine owned by the nation.
Nine Chinese people were killed when armed men attacked a mine in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Mayor of the nearby town of Bambari, Abel Matchipata, told newsmen that; “we have counted nine bodies and two wounded” following Sunday’s attack. The victim’s bodies were brought to the capital of Bangui later that day.
The Asian miners employed by the Gold Coast Group at the neighboring Chimbolo mine were the casualties. Around five in the morning local time, attackers overwhelmed the mine’s guards and started firing. Matchipata said that the mine site’s operations had only begun a few days previously.
Chinese people are not permitted to leave Bangui, the capital of the CAR, according to the Chinese embassy.
However, according to Deutsche Welle and the American Broadcasting Company, “suspicion fell on” the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), which is active in the region and has not yet claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.
The CPC, which was described in 2023 by the Global Centre for the Responsibility To Protect as “a loose alliance of predatory armed groups”, is aligned with former president Francois Bozizé. The former president was ousted in 2013, following the formation of a rebel coalition who condemned the Bozizé government for not honouring previous peace agreements.
CPC military spokesman Mamadou Koura has said that the allegations were false, instead claiming that Russian mercenaries planned the attack “with the goal of scaring Chinese [workers] who have been present long before the Russians settled in this part of the country,” but did not present any additional evidence.
The Russian Mercenary Group, or Russian Wagner group, was hired by president Touadera for military and security training. The group has been accused of “violently harassing and intimidating” civilians and other innocents by UN experts.
The news was released just a few days after gunmen abducted three Chinese citizens in the west of the CAR, close to the Cameroonian border. In order to reassure investors, CAR President Faustin Archange Touadera has since organized a trip to China.
Due to rebel groups’ efforts to curtail mining operations run and owned by foreign businesses, the CAR’s mines have recently encountered a number of security issues.
The Chinese government has categorised the CAR as an extremely high security risk for Chinese citizens due to the ownership of several of the mines that are currently in operation there.
According to a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it “will continue to work closely with other government agencies concerned and subnational governments to do everything possible to protect the safety and security of Chinese nationals and companies in Africa”.
In 2020 two Chinese nationals died when local residents staged on uprising against a Chinese-owned mine in Sosso Nakombo in the south-west of the CAR. Additionally in 2018, three Chinese workers were killed after a local leader died while accompanying Chinese miners to a site on a boat trip.