Association For Strategic Culture and Research Foundation

Libyan stability matters. Over the past decade, a stream of mercenaries, terrorists and weaponry flooding out of Libya’s southern borders have fueled a plethora of conflicts throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have taken advantage of the chaos in a bid to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe. Libya has, furthermore, mutated into a proxy conflict for a spectrum of international players.

Conflict over CAR's mineral resources could also intensify amid fears that the government may compensate Wagner or associated companies by handing them control of mining zones. Wagner arrived in 2018, around the same time that the government granted gold and diamond mining licences to the Russian-owned company Lobaye Invest SARLU.

Over the past few years, Russian authorities have in their speeches expressed anti-colonial sentiments and openly declared unflinching support for fighting against what they referred to as neocolonial tendencies in Africa. Russia is particularly against France in French-speaking African countries in West Africa including the entire Sahel and Central African Republic.

Now the United Nations is investigating a published report that also documented incidents of rape, murder, and torture. There are investigations into mass graves in the desert city of Bani Walid. Three people were buried in this cemetery, and there are graves containing the bodies of migrants in a smuggling center in Libya. Many East African women have also testified that they were raped and sexually assaulted and that they set fire to the women's breasts and burn them.