the departure of hundreds of troops Russian of Wagner from Central African Republic it is part of a rotation of forces rather than a withdrawal, a spokesman for the CAR presidency said on Saturday.
The brief uprising led by the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in Russia in June, he has raised questions about the prospects for his group’s extensive network of military and commercial operations in the CAR and other parts of Africa, Middle East and other places.
Reports of the recent departure of large numbers of Wagner staff from RCA by plane have fueled speculation in recent days that the group is withdrawing from the country, where they have been helping the government put down various rebel insurgencies since 2018.
But the RCA presidential spokesman, Albert Yaloke Mokpem, he said “it’s not a final departure but a rotation”.
“Some have left and others will come,” he told a news conference in the capital, Bangui. According to a military source cited by Reuters, several hundred Wagner troops have recently left the country, but it is not known how many remain. It is believed that about 1,900 Russian mercenaries, including Wagner’s, operated there.