Moscow is trying to gain more influence in Africa in the former French colonies by taking advantage of the elections that are taking place in several countries where stability has never been achieved. Some officials of the Central African Republic (RCA): they said that Russia reportedly sent hundreds of military personnel to the country at the request of its leader to defend it in the outcome of this weekend's elections. The fear is that in the event of re-election there could be a coup.
Armed rebels argue that the president's government Touadéra he is supported by the Kremlin with which there is an "under the table" agreement to make him win the elections. Touadéra's closeness to Russia is also seen as a setback to President Macron's ambitions to reaffirm France's influence in French-speaking Africa.
Putin has intensified his presence in Africa in support of the heads of governments of various countries since the US has diminished its influence on African leaders. The US Navy has already deployed ships off Somalia this week to carry out the withdrawal of 700 troops, just 16 days after President Trump ordered them to withdraw. Military personnel who had been there for years in an attempt to counter and fight the fundamentalist group Al-Shabaab.
Moscow then helped the troops sent from Rwanda to claim control of a strategic city in the Central African Republic that had been overrun by rebels. bambari, 240 miles northeast of Bangui, the capital of the LIA Republic.
"Civilians are starting to return", said Abdoulaziz Fall, a spokesman for the peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. "Armed groups were pushed back into the bush ". Though rich in diamonds, timber and gold, CAR remains one of the most unstable countries in the world and its five million people live in extreme poverty. Since independence from France in 1960, it has suffered five coups and many rebellions. The latest crisis erupted after the country's supreme court rejected several candidates in the elections on Sunday, including François Bozizé, the former president, who was indicted for war crimes. The government accused him of plotting a coup, which his party denies.
The ongoing "bit" war was denounced by the most popular social network in the world.
Facebook was the first to report the rivalry between Paris and Moscow in an effort to increase their respective influence in Africa. Fb made public the "controversy" when a series of fake accounts were linked to the French military and Russian shady characters, in violation of the rules on foreign or government interference. "This was the first time that our team found two campaigns - from France and Russia - actively engaging with each other by commenting and criticizing the opposing party for falsehood ", they wrote nathaniel gleicher e David Agranovich, senior Facebook officials.
Macron, for his part, continues to accuse Russia and Turkey of promoting anti-French sentiment in Africa by funding media campaigns aimed at exacerbating resentment against Paris. One of the networks closed by Facebook was, in fact, directly connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman who has close ties to the Kremlin who has already been indicted in America for interfering in the 2016 presidential election using his troll facilities.