France’s Policy towards the Central African Republic (2013–2024)

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Abstract

The article examines France’s policy towards the Central African Republic (CAR) after the operation Sangaris (2013–2016). Due to the ineffectiveness of French military aid, the CAR began to develop relations with Russia since 2017. Thanks to Russian support, the training of soldiers of the national army has significantly accelerated, the peace agreement was concluded between the government and the rebels in 2019, and a coup d’état was prevented in 2020–2021. Initially France responded by increasing arms supplies and providing additional financial support for CAR’s budget. But when these efforts had not yielded the expected outcomes, France decided to exert significant pressure on the CAR’s leaders in order to force them to refocus on cooperation with Paris. CAR made concessions to France and agreed to work with the American private military company, Bancroft, despite existing agreements with the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Wagner Group. The research highlights that the new security agreements concluded by the Central African authorities pose a threat to Russian interests in the country.

About the authors

Aleksey V. Nefedov

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Email: danrousivanov1@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0009-0009-8082-036X
Post-graduate student, Faculty of Political Science Moscow, Russia

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