French National Charged With Espionage in Central African Republic After Paris Nixes Training Deal

A French national arrested last month in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been charged with espionage just days after France cancelled a military training agreement with the country.

On Wednesday, CAR Attorney General Eric Didier Tambo said that Juan Remy Quignolot, 55, was accused of having helped and trained rebel fighters since 2013. He has been charged with espionage, illegal possession of military and hunting weapons, criminal association, harming domestic state security and conspiracy, according to Reuters.

Al Jazeera reported that Tambo didn’t explicitly mention either a country or an organization for whom Quignolot allegedly worked. He also didn’t say which group or groups Quignolot allegedly aided. Quignolot has denied the charges and the French government hasn’t commented on them.

This mission ended in 2016, when presidential elections were held, but continued spats of violence have kept a United Nations peacekeeping mission and a European Union military training detachment in the country, as well as 300 French military advisors. However, on Tuesday, Paris suspended this cooperation agreement. 

In December, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that 300 military instructors had been dispatched to the CAR at the request of the government. In addition to the Russian experts, a total of 15,000 personnel – 11,000 of whom are soldiers – are also in the country as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) peacekeeping force.

Moscow has not commented on the accusations and Paris has not denied them, but did say it would conduct an investigation.

Under the training deal, Paris supplied Bangui with $12.8 million toward its budget; this has now been ended, and the roughly 300 French troops not in the country as part of an international mission will leave.

Diamonds are the CAR’s primary export, with industrial diamonds constituting 57% of its exports. It also exports timber and gold. In 2017, France, the former colonial ruler from which CAR won independence in 1960, was still the country’s largest export partner, accounting for 31.2% of all exports. 

Sourse: sputniknews.com