BANGUI, CA Republic
The Central African Republic’s prime minister has been sacked against the backdrop of tensions between pro-Russian and pro-French factions within the government in Bangui.
Henri-Marie Dondra (above) was named prime minister in June
2021, shortly after Paris froze budgetary aid to Bangui, accusing it of
“complicity” in what Paris called a Russian “disinformation” campaign against
the country’s former colonial ruler France.
According to a spokesman for the Presidency, Dondra
was reportedly “fired” and replaced by his economy minister, Felix Moloua,
confirming a weekend report by online news website Africa Intelligence.
The move came as CAR President Faustin-Archange
Touadera was attending an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis
Ababa.
Moloua, a Touadera loyalist and a technocrat, was sworn-in as prime minister earlier this Wednesday.
Handing over between the outgoing Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the incoming FĂ©lix Moloua this February 9 at the Primature. |
Moscow’s importance in the Central African Republic
has increased steadily over the past four years.
In 2020 Russian military contractors alongside
Rwandan troops were called upon to subdue a rebellion against Touadera.
With their help, CAR government forces recaptured
as much as two-thirds of the country – and several major towns – that had
fallen under rebel control.
At the time of Dondra’s appointment as prime
minister he was perceived as more “pro-French” than his predecessor Firmin
Ngrebada, seen as more sympathetic to Moscow.
Mineral-rich but rated the world’s second-poorest
country according to the UN’s Human Development Index, the CAR has been
chronically unstable since independence 60 years ago.
A civil war broke out in 2013, pitting multiple militia groups against a state on the verge of collapse, leaving thousands of people dead and forcing more than a quarter of the 5 million population to flee their homes.
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