Russian mercenaries have taken control of the border zone shared by the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Sudan, effectively turning a region known for its gold mines into a “gray zone” controlled by a private military corporation.
Russia’s Lobaye Invest, which is affiliated with the Wagner Group, controls mining operations in eastern CAR. With little to no state presence in that region, Russian mercenaries have established draconian rules on the miners working there: no hunting, no possessing weapons, and no using motorcycles within the mining zone.
Several weeks ago, a miner at the Baba mine captured a gazelle that that been outfitted with a Russian surveillance camera. That action provoked a rapid, violent response from Russian mercenary forces. A barrage of weapons fire from both ground-based vehicles and from helicopters wounded 30 miners and sent others fleeing for safety into Sudan and South Sudan, potentially increasing instability and insecurity in those border areas.
The next day, bodies lay abandoned at the site while the local community was left to process what happened, according to The Sudan Times.
“This bloody confrontation underscores the volatile and often deadly security vacuum in the region, where foreign forces exert aggressive control over lucrative mineral resources at the expense of local lives,” The Sudan Times wrote.
After the violent attack, Russian forces closed the roads into eastern CAR, effectively sealing it off from its neighbors and the world.
The Baba mine attack was the latest in a long list of Russian attacks on gold miners in CAR and Sudan reaching back to 2020, when the Wagner Group took over the CAR’s Ndassima mine. According to analysts with the Robert Lansing Institute, the closing of eastern CAR was the last step in Russia’s plan to establish a lawless region beyond state control and international sanctions where it is free to smuggle gold.
That plan dates back to 2017, when CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra invited the Wagner Group to train his military, provide his personal security and serve as his national security advisors. Wagner would be paid for its services with the gold and diamonds extracted by its affiliate Lobaye Invest.
Over the last nine years, Russia’s presence and authority in the country has grown to include controlling the border crossing with Sudan’s Central Darfur state. The use of helicopters and drones has given Russian mercenaries control of the airspace over eastern CAR, reducing the capacity of the militaries and border control authorities of CAR and Sudan, according to the Lansing Institute.
“Russia’s presence in CAR has evolved from nominal ‘site protection’ and security training to de facto management of specific territories and resource flows, enforced through its own rules and coercive mechanisms,” Lansing Institute analysts wrote.
By closing eastern CAR, Russia has control over a key hub of gold and smuggling routes, turning the region’s gold into a steady source of illicit revenue. This trafficking allows the country to avoid the conventional banking systems from which it has been isolated.
“At the same time, local intermediaries and armed groups become increasingly dependent on Russia’s coercive ‘protection,’ entrenching Moscow’s long-term presence without the need for formal inter-state agreements,” the Lansing Institute wrote.
Analysts added that the action in eastern CAR is not isolated.
“This is a scalable model,” they wrote.
