EU Top Military Chief Urges CAR President To End Business With Wagner Forces In Country

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2021) The Director-General of the EU Military Staff Vice Admiral Herve Blejean said on Tuesday that he urged the President of the Central African Republic (CAR) Faustin-Archange Touadera to end the association with the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner during a meeting last week.

"I was in the Central African Republic last week, and I saw Wagner. I saw that on the field. They are everywhere," Blejean said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum. "I have discussed that [Wagner presence] a lot with President Touadera last week and I told him 'you have to acknowledge it is not a viable solution... When things will be done, you will have no control on Wagner and you will have lost some sovereignty to them and it's not acceptable... you have to stop that too, you have to change your model and we can help you to do that with UN, EU, US partners, African partners.

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According to Blejean, Wagner forces bring nothing but atrocities and human rights violations to car and their aim is to extract natural resources in return for their military support.

Earlier on Tuesday, United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean Pierre Lacroix said he was very concerned by the allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by Russian military personnel in CAR. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov strongly rejected the allegations in the UN report published last week.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, there are more than 500 Russian instructors currently working in the CAR with the authorization of the UN Security Council.