Authorities in the Central African Republic revoked a Chinese mining company’s license in the southern town of Mingala in June over concerns it was cooperating with armed militias.
The CAR’s mining ministry accused Daqing SARL, a Chinese gold and diamond mining company, of sharing “intelligence with armed groups, illegal exploitation, illegal introduction of foreign subjects into mining areas, non-payment of taxes and lack of activity reports,” according to a government decree.
Rebel groups in the CAR have long fought with Chinese and other foreign companies that seek to exploit the country’s abundant resources of gold and diamonds.
The Chinese also face threats from Russia’s Africa Corps, formerly the Wagner Group, which also is keen to exploit the country’s natural wealth.
The region around Mingala, near the CAR’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has for years been plagued by fighting between the country’s armed forces and the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPS), an armed anti-government group. The CPC was formed in the aftermath of a 2019 peace agreement between several armed groups.
In mid-May, an armed group attacked a Chinese mining site in the southwestern town of Gaga, killing at least four workers. Maxime Balalu, a local government spokesperson, told The Associated Press that the CPC was responsible.
At least nine people were killed during an attack on a Chinese mine in the southern town of Chimbolo in mid-March. Aligned with Russia, the CAR government blamed foreigners for the attack as part of a complicated plot, while some also blamed the CPC.
But witnesses said the attackers were heavily armed white fighters who wore miliary regalia commonly worn by Russian mercenaries.
“Rebels typically don’t kill foreigners but kidnap them and request for ransom to be paid for their release,” Ali, an alias used by a former fighter for the Union for Peace rebel group and who previously worked for the Wagner Group in the CAR, told The Daily Beast. “This is an attack only the Russians can carry out.”
Threats of violence can persuade mining companies, including those run by Chinese entrepreneur Zhao Baomei, known in the CAR as “Queen of the Gold Mines,” to form alliances with rebel groups.
Baomei owns Industrie Minière Centrafricaine (IMC), which has strategic logistical support in Cameroon. In Limbe, near the Gulf of Guinea coast, Baomei has a depot from which fuel, excavating machines and other vehicles are sent to mines in the CAR.
For protection, Baomei agreed to terms with local armed groups, including Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation, or 3R, a collection of ethnic Fulani militiamen; and Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, or UPC; according to an Africa Intelligence report.
Led by notorious warlord Ali Darass, the UPC has been responsible for murders, torture, rapes and the displacement of thousands of people in Central Africa since 2014. Darass participated in the Seleka rebellion that led to the 2013 coup attempt in Chad. In 2021, he participated in an offensive on Bangui, CAR’s capital, as a member of theCoalition of Patriots for Change, or CPC.
