The United States has imposed sanctions on companies in the Central African Republic (CAR), which it accuses of advancing Russia's activities and enabling the Wagner mercenary group, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
The Wagner Group is a private Russian mercenary army that is present in some African countries such as Libya and Mali. It also fought some of the bloodiest clashes of the war in Ukraine.
The US Treasury said the corporations, a CAR-based timber company and a Russia-based company, sought to benefit financially "from illicit natural resource extraction and provided material and financial support to the Wagner Group and other organisations."
The action targets CAR-based Bois Rouge SARLU for its ties to Wagner and St. Petersburg-based Broker Expert for its support of Bois Rouge, it said in a statement.
Interests in Africa
"Russia has sought to leverage these Wagner-affiliated companies in its efforts both to secure additional revenue from abroad and to advance its interests in Africa, often at the expense of the host countries, their institutions, and their citizens ,” Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in the statement.
“The United States remains focused on disrupting the networks that enable Russia’s illicit and destabilising activities in Africa," the statement added.
The Central African Republic, a former French colony, has become one of Russia's closest African allies in recent years, playing host to one of the Wagner Group mercenary army's largest foreign operations.
It was founded in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
Wagner's former owner, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, died in a 2023 plane explosion in Russia.
The United States has previously imposed sanctions on Wagner and has repeatedly warned of what it says are Wagner's destabilising activities and human rights abuses.
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