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France accused as parcel bomb wounds Russian in Central Africa

The head of the Russian cultural centre in the Central African Republic was badly wounded on Friday after opening a parcel bomb, Moscow's embassy said, amid accusations France was behind the blast.

Published: 16 December 2022 18:03 CET

France accused as parcel bomb wounds Russian in Central Africa

Dimitry Sytii (C), founder of the mining company Lobaye Invest in Bangui on October 15, 2021. He was reportedly injured by a parcel bomb on December 16th, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

France denied the claim by the boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that Paris was involved and should be designated a state sponsor of terrorism.

Central Africa has been battling civil war since 2013 and is at the heart of Russia’s bid for strategic influence in Africa.

The last French troops deployed in CAR left on Thursday following a chill in relations caused by closer ties between Bangui and Moscow and the deployment of Russian forces, which some countries say includes Wagner mercenaries.

“The head of the Russia House (cultural centre) received an anonymous parcel on Friday, opened it and an explosion happened,” the embassy said, quoted by the official TASS news agency.

The centre’s head Dmitry Sytyi was hospitalised with “serious injuries,” it added.

“I have already requested the Russian foreign ministry to initiate the procedure to declare France a state sponsor of terrorism,” Prigozhin was quoted as saying in a statement released by his company, Concord.

He called for a “thorough investigation” into “the terrorist methods of France and its Western allies — the United States and others.”

France’s top diplomat on Friday denied Prigozhin’s claims.

“This information is false and is a good example of Russian propaganda and the fanciful imagination that sometimes characterises it,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told AFP during a visit to Morocco.

‘Son’s head’

Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said it was unclear if Sytyi would make it.

“Russian doctors are doing everything they can in the Bangui hospital to save him,” Prigozhin said.

Before losing consciousness, Prigozhin claimed Sytyi saw a note that allegedly said: “This is for you from all the French, the Russians will get out of Africa.”

Prigozhin said Sytyi first received a parcel from Togo on November 11. It contained a picture of his son residing in France and a note saying “next time he will receive his son’s head” if the Russians do not leave Africa.

Prigozhin said Sytyi opened a new package on Friday because he had thought it would contain his son’s head.

“If Dmitry Sytyi remains alive, he will continue the struggle and see with his own eyes how those who made the attempt on his life will burn in the flames of history,” Prigozhin added.

“If he dies, he will forever remain a symbol of this struggle.”

Russia’s RIA Novosti agency quoted a Russian diplomat saying Sytyi received the parcel at his home, away from the cultural centre. “He received it, took it into his house and opened it,” the diplomat said.

The centre in downtown Bangui remained open on Friday. No police presence could be seen around the building where traffic was normal, AFP reporters said.

France, the former colonial power, dispatched up to 1,600 troops to help stabilise CAR after a coup in 2013 unleashed a civil war along sectarian lines.

Over the last few years, friction has grown between the two nations over a mounting Russian military presence.

In 2018, Moscow sent instructors to the country, and in 2020 followed this with hundreds of paramilitaries to help President Faustin Archange Touadera defeat rebels advancing on the capital.

France, the UN and others say they are mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner group, who have been linked with atrocities and looting of resources.

Sanctioned by Washington and Brussels, Prigozhin has emerged as one of Putin’s most loyal lieutenants after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.

In November, the European Parliament recognised Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, accusing its forces of carrying out atrocities during its offensive in Ukraine.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.