Introduction
In August 2023, a new constitution was adopted in a tense context, as opponents and journalists were harassed and threatened. The term of office of the President has been extended from five to seven years, and their number is no longer limited. This strengthening of the powers of the executive further lowered the country’s score in the Freedom Index. In September 2023, a high-profile group of opposition leaders signed a joint communiqué declaring that they did not recognise the new constitution and calling the regime illegitimate and dictatorial.
On 15th December 2023, one of these opposition leaders, MP Dominique Yandocka, was arrested at his home in Bangui and detained at the police’s Research and Investigation Services, while his bodyguard was beaten by the security forces. Despite his parliamentary immunity, he has been in detention ever since. Details of the accusations against him have never been made public but his party, Initiative pour une transformation par l’action, has rejected his alleged involvement in a coup plot. The spokesperson for the Civil Society Working Group (CSWG), Paul-Crescent Beninga, argued that the MP’s arrest was premeditated.
(...) the organizer of the dysfunction of the justice system is the Minister of Justice himself, through acts of corruption that have been amply documented
- Crépin Mboli-Goumba, political opponent and lawyer, interviewed by Rolf-Steve Domia-Leu
In March 2024, another opposition leader was arrested. Former minister Crépin Mboli-Goumba, lawyer and President of the African Party for Radical Transformation and the Integration of States (Patrie) and coordinator of the Republican Bloc for the Defence of the Constitution (BRDC), was arrested at the airport in Bangui and subsequently held in police custody for three days. The prosecutor’s office justified the arrest on the grounds that the lawyer had made comments at a press conference on 20th February that “could be construed as defamation and contempt of court”. Crépin Mboli-Goumba had accused certain judges of complacency towards defendants or even of being corrupt, comments he repeated the following day in an interview with Radio France Internationale. On 27th March, Crépin Mboli-Goumba was convicted and sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay the equivalent of $132,000 in damages to the plaintiffs.
The Russian regime maintains significant influence over the country’s political affairs. The Wagner Group is responsible for President Touadéra’s security. A battle for influence between Russia and the United States continues to play out in the country. In December 2023, it emerged that the authorities were talking with the US-based private security company Bancroft Global Development, to potentially diversify its relationship and reliance on the Wagner Group. The United Nations therefore called the Central African Republic “to be transparent in granting authorizations and to make every effort to halt the commission of human rights violations by personnel of private military and security companies”.
Between 1st July 2023 and 30th June 2024, the Human Rights Division of the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) documented 2,724 human rights violations and abuses affecting 4,121 victims. Armed groups were responsible for 1,575 human rights violations, resulting in 2,199 victims. According to the UN, violations committed by the army, police and gendarmerie have declined but not ceased. State agents were responsible for 1,149 violations affecting 1,932 victims, mainly through arbitrary arrest or detention. On 15th November 2023, the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) for one year.
Advancing the adjudication of serious crimes by former president and rebel leaders but no progress for victims as the Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission is dissolved
In September 2023, the Special Criminal Court established in CAR to prosecute the international crimes committed in the country since 2003 charged rebel leader Abdoulaye Hissène with war crimes and crimes against humanity following his arrest by RCA security forces. The same month, the Bangui Court of Appeal sentenced 23 people in absentia, - including exiled former president François Bozizé, militia leader Maxime Mokom Gawaka and several other rebel leaders - to life imprisonment for undermining the internal security of the State, conspiracy, murder, rebellion, destruction of public property and crimes committed against peacekeepers. In October 2023, the International Criminal Court terminated the proceedings against Maxime Mokom Gawaka, accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 2013 and 2014, after the prosecution dropped all charges, citing the unavailability of witnesses. On 27th February 2024, the Special Criminal Court issued an international arrest warrant for former President François Bozizé for crimes against humanity. Guinea-Bissau does not envisage extraditing him.
On 7th May 2024, the authorities dissolved the office of the Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission was set up in 2020 for a period of four years to investigate, establish the truth and apportion responsibility for serious national events since 29th March 1959. First, security forces came to close the office, then, the government announced the suspension of the mandate of its eleven commissioners; and, in the aftermath, a call for candidates was published for new commissioners, discrediting the outgoing commissioners. Disagreements between the commissioners led to this decision, but above all it leaves the victims out in the cold.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
State attacks damning report on Wagner’s hold
Breaking: Our new investigative report spotlights the #Wagner Group’s ultraviolent capture of the Central African Republic and reveals Wagner’s nightmarish blueprint for domination. Explore the findings: https://t.co/kSTvR1rnWk
— The Sentry (@TheSentry_Org) June 27, 2023
In June 2023, the human rights NGO The Sentry issued an investigative report entitled “Architecture of terror: how the Wagner group strengthens its empire over the Central African state”. The report concludes that under the cover of a counter-offensive against anti-Touadéra armed groups, Wagner, the President and his inner circle have perpetrated widespread, systematic and well-planned campaigns of mass killing, torture and rape throughout the country. In return, the Touadera government has granted Wagner-associated companies lucrative mining licences.
Following the publication, the Minister of State Arnaud Djoubaye Abazène brought a direct action against the American NGO ‘The Sentry’ for defamation. On 27th July 2023, a hearing took place at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Bangui and the prosecutor requested a fine of 500,000 FCFA.
In May 2024, Reporters Without Borders issued its world press freedom index for 2023. The country gained 22 places, from 98th to 76th place out of 180 countries. Authorities were pleased with the country’s progress in terms of press freedom. But Reporters Without Borders also noted that journalists are very poorly paid, are subject to intimidation and are routinely treated as spies or accomplices when interviewing members of armed groups. Media professionals describe the major difficulties they continue to encounter in exercising their profession. “We work with fear in our stomachs” said the President of the Union of Central African Journalists.
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
Difficulty to register associations located outside the capital
In their joint submission to the universal periodic review (UPR) of the human rights record of the Central African Republic in January 2024, 25 civil society organisations underlined the difficulties encountered in registering associations located outside the capital Bangui as a result of the highly centralised nature of those procedures. They also denounced the abuse, in some cases, of the system for granting prior administrative authorisation for demonstrations to prevent some gatherings by political and civil society organisations.
Concern about massive human rights violations in the country and unsafe conditions for NGO workers
On the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Network of NGOs Promoting Human Rights (RONGDH) issued a statement to express concern about “the many massive and repeated violations of human rights” occurring in the country, despite the creation of institutions responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Central African Republic.
Moreover, NGOs themselves operate in unsafe conditions. NGO operations are limited by poor security conditions, and aid workers are particularly vulnerable. The International NGO Safety Organization counted 164 security incidents in the country in 2023 involving NGO workers; 2 were killed, 16 injured, and 8 abducted. Numbers do not look better for 2024: in January, 22 NGO incidents were recorded, above the monthly averages for 2023. Two serious incidents saw five staff temporarily abducted. In the first, the armed group Party of the Rally of the Central African Nation abducted an NGO staff member for three days and robbed him in northern Haute-Kotto Prefecture. In the second, armed criminals abducted and robbed four NGO staff along with their driver in Ombella M’Poko. All abducted workers were released unharmed.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
Demonstrations against foreign powers
On 7th October 2023, around 60 associations supporting the regime protested in Bangui against France and the West and denounced manoeuvres to destabilise the country. According to the demonstrators, during the 78th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, instructions to destabilise were given regarding African countries cooperating with the Russian Federation.
On 26th January, about a hundred people gathered in front of the US embassy to denounce the security agreement with the private security company Bancroft. The rally was called by the newly-formed Committee for Initiative, Control and Investigation of U.S. Actions in the Central African Republic.
According to the French media RFI, “media linked to Russian interests have been stepping up their anti-American attacks, accusing Washington of preparing unauthorized military operations, violating Central African sovereignty and plotting the overthrow or even assassination of President Touadéra”. Similarly, the International Crisis Group notes that this hostile campaign against the arrival of the U.S.-based firm has seemingly been backed by Russia and has forced the repatriation of about a dozen U.S. citizens between October 2023 and February 2024.
On 2nd May 2024, young people mobilised under the slogan “Stop MINUSCA” to express their distrust of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic. They denounce abuses by UN peacekeepers. Valentine Rugwabiza, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic and Head of the MINUSCA, expressed concern over the continuous misinformation campaigns targeting the mission during the June 2024 Security Council.
On 5th June 2024, another demonstration took place in Bangui against the destabilising role of the United States and Europe in the country. The demonstration was organised by the Mouvement des Jeunes Panafricains (MJP) and attended by about 300 people. The demonstrators denounced the interference of Western powers in African affairs and called for respect for CAR’s sovereignty, freedom and integrity.