A Portuguese-Belgian national was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a “plot against the regime” in the Central African Republic.
APortuguese-Belgiancitizenhasbeen arrested by the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic on suspicion of being involved in a “plot against the regime”. The news was reported by the Lusa news agency and a source from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Portugal Pulse that the “man has already been heard”
“We are following the case in person and with means of subsistence. The number two of the [Portuguese] Embassy in Kinshasa has already visited him, as has the honorary consul of the Central African Republic,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is awaiting “developments in the case”.
Paulo Rangel’s ministry told Lusa that the Portuguese-Belgian “works for an American non-governmental organization (NGO)”.
The arrest took place last Saturday, May 25, in Zémio, a town in the province of Haut-Mbomou, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lusa, quoting Central African Public Prosecutor Benoit Narcisse Foukpio, said that “judicial proceedings” had been opened against the detainee for alleged “conspiracy” against the state in connection with rebel “armed groups”.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Portuguese national “was in permanent contact with various armed groups (…) with a view to committing a conspiracy, [an] attack against the internal security of the state and acts of incitement to hatred and revolt against the defense and security forces.”
According to the local press, the man “holds two passports”, Portuguese and Belgian, but was born in Portugal. He is an employee of the NGO Family Health International 360 (FHI360) and used to collect from the local population “information on the operations of local militias”, which was then “provided to the rebels fighting against these militias”.
FHI 360 confirmed to France Presse that one of its “consultants, who works on a community development program in Zémio” is “detained by the authorities” in CAR.
