Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadéra on Wednesday renewed the government of his predecessor, Henri-Marie Dondra, whom he had dismissed on Monday, in a strictly identical manner for his new Prime Minister Félix Moloua.
Mr. Moloua retains exactly the same title of his portfolio of “Minister of State, Economy, Planning and International Cooperation” that he already held in the government of Mr. Dondra, now combining this position with that of Prime Minister, according to a decree of Mr. Touadéra delivered in the evening to the press and read on the airwaves of the State radio.
On Monday, the president had “removed” Mr Dondra from office but the latter had assured AFP that he had submitted his resignation, eight months following his appointment and once morest a background of struggles for influence between France and Russia in his country in civil war for eight years.
The reappointment of a strictly identical government therefore seems to confirm the analysis made in recent days by the local press and the opposition that the dismissal of Mr. Dondra was strictly a matter of rivalry between two clans on his person and not on the need to change the policy of the power in place.
Mr. Dondra was appointed on June 11, 2021, a few days following France froze its budget aid to Bangui, which Paris considered “complicit” in an anti-French “disinformation campaign” orchestrated by Russia.
The appointment of Mr. Dondra, considered more “benevolent” towards France than his predecessor Firmin Ngrebada, considered rather pro-Russian, was perceived then as a gesture of appeasement to Paris.
Over the past four years, Russia’s influence, including through mercenaries from the private security company Wagner according to the UN and Paris, has increased significantly.
Mr. Touadéra was re-elected on December 27, 2020 in a highly contested election by the opposition, with one in three voters not having had the opportunity to go to the polls in a country then two-thirds under the control of armed groups.
A rebel coalition had just launched an offensive on Bangui to overthrow him. After his re-election, the threatened head of state appealed to Moscow, which for three years already had many “military instructors” with its army and very influential advisers to the presidency and defense.
Hundreds of paramilitaries then landed in the Central African Republic, “unarmed instructors” according to Moscow, Wagner fighters according to the UN and Paris.
Thanks to them, the rebels were quickly repulsed, and Bangui even regained control of the vast majority of the country.
But the UN accuses the Central African soldiers and the rebels of “human rights violations” and, in unison with Paris and international NGOs, of taking control of the country’s resources, including mining.
