CAR: Nine Chinese nationals killed by armed men, China issues a travel warning

Unidentified armed men killed Sunday nine Chinese and wounded two others in the mining town of Bambari, in civil-war hit Central African Republic (CAR).

Abel Matchipata, mayor of the town located in the center of the country, told local media that the victims were working in a mining field, for Gold Coast Group. He added that the armed men attacked the field at dawn.

China’s envoy to the country Li Qinfeng and CAR’s top diplomat Sylvie Baipo Temon reportedly visited the victims and corpses at the hospital.

The Chinese embassy in capital Bangui subsequently warned Chinese nationals against traveling outside the capital following the dreadful attack, Reuters reports. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Coalition des patriotes pour le changement [Coalition of Patriots for Change], a rebel movement founded in 2020 with the aim to ouster incumbent leader Faustin Archange Touadéra, distanced itself from the crime but blamed Russia-backed private security company Wagner for the incident.

President Touadera has contracted the Russian companyto help get rid of the rebels. The central African country has slid into civil war since 2013. The war has caused thousands of deaths mostly among civilians and weakened the state.