Four French soldiers who were escorting a UN force general were arrested on Monday (February 21st) at Bangui airport, according to the French embassy in the Central African capital. “The close protection team of General [Stéphane] Marchenoir, Chief of Staff of the Minusca Force (United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic), composed of four French soldiers, was arrested this afternoon at Bangui airport,” the embassy revealed in a statement published on its Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Many private accounts have spread on social networks in accusations against the French military claiming in particular that they had wanted to “assassinate” the Central African President Faustin Archange Touadéra.
“Gross disinformation”
“The Embassy deeply regrets this incident. It condemns its immediate instrumentalization on certain malicious networks and the gross disinformation to which it gives rise,” the diplomatic representation wrote Monday evening. “They were at the airport to escort the general, it was a combination of circumstances that made that at the same time, the plane of President Touadéra landed,” explained the Parisian general staff of the armies. In a statement, MINUSCA “categorically rejects the accusations of undermining the security of the state”.
The incident comes at a time when relations between France and its former colony are increasingly tense, exacerbated by a fierce struggle for influence between Paris and Moscow, in the country that has been in civil war since 2013. France accuses the Central African Republic of being “complicit” in an anti-French campaign orchestrated by Moscow on social networks and some media and accuses the Russian private security company Wagner of having seized the power and resources of the country. Source Franceinfo
