To maintain control over lucrative gold mines and timber forests, the Wagner Group virtually runs the Central African Republic through fear and violence.
Just one year earlier, there was another massacre, but this one was thousands of miles from Ukraine in the Central African Republic town of Bambari.
No international prosecutors arrived to document the mass-murder of civilians, and no one stepped forward to implicate Wagner mercenaries.
He's protected by Wagner gunmen and, in exchange, the Russian company gets contracts to mine gold in the country.
Masked Wagner Group mercenaries, along with domestic security agents, stand guard during an event as Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin-Archange Touadéra speaks on stage, in September 2022.
Workers mine in an open pit at the Ndassima gold mine in the Central African Republic.
The region is peppered with gold mines, most of which were small, artisanal operations before Russia's Wagner group moved in. »
