On Sunday 19 March 2023, nine (9) Chinese workers were brutally murdered at the Chimbolo mining site, 22 kilometres from Bambari in the Ouaka. The Central African authorities and the Command of the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), called on Russian instructors to help them evacuate the bodies of the victims to Bangui. On the same day, Russian instructors from Bambari, transported to Bangui two wounded and the bodies of the nine (9) Chinese engineers who died in the attack on Chingbolo attributed to elements of the UPC allied to the CPC, coordinated by François Bozizé Yangouvonda.
Immediately, Russian instructors, in collaboration with the Central African law enforcement authorities, began operational search operations to locate and capture these criminals. Subsequently, a team of Central African investigators led by the Prosecutor General was brought to Bambari.
Analysis of intercepted Thuraya satellite phone calls revealed that on the day of the murder, there was a phone in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene that communicated with phones belonging to the leaders of the armed group, Hamadou Boungous and Mahamat Sallet.
According to information gathered, Hamadou Boungous is a so-called field “commander” of the UPC who reports directly to Ali Darassa, and holds the position of Chief of Staff (in charge of operations) of this bandit group.
Professionally, elements of the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), with Russian instructors, started to pursue these known criminals. On 23 March 2023, a first clash with these bandit groups took place, during which two bandits were killed.
The military authorities identified this terrorist as Labeul, a former member of the Chadian Armed Forces who entered Central African territory in 2020 and joined Ali Darassa’s group in Bokolobo. The name of the second terrorist killed is Abdoulaye Kawe Fakya, also from Chad.
On 24 March 2023, a third terrorist named Saleh, nicknamed “Eruke”, was killed in another violent clash with a group that tried to escape. Initially a member of the UPC, he joined the “3R” group after the attempted attack on Bangui on 13 January 2021 and fought against government forces in Berbérati in the Mambéré-Kadeï and Bouar in the Nana-Mambéré.
He participated in several killings of Central African civilians in these locations. He then fled to Brazzaville in Congo to visit family members.
According to widely sought information, he received money from the financier of terrorists in CAR, the two-headed Abdou Karim Meckassoua, whose name has been mentioned several times in criminal coup attempts in CAR, and who was also in Brazzaville at the time.
When searching Saleh’s body and his backpack, passports and personal belongings of six (6) murdered Chinese workers were found. This proves that he was also one of the killers of these nine (9) Chinese on 19 March 2023, in the village of Chingbolo in the Ouaka prefecture.
After having killed the Chinese nationals, Habib Hode drafted, at the request of Karim Meckassoua, a communiqué accusing the Russians of having prepared the cold-blooded assassination of the Chinese workers. This is in order to weaken the friendly Russian-Chinese relations.
The search for the last assassins in the prefecture of Basse-Kotto is currently continuing. It is certain that they will receive the punishment they deserve.
