The Central African Republic (CAR) has proposed closer security cooperation with Chad, seeking to ease tensions after N’Djamena accused Central African forces of crossing the border during an operation against armed groups earlier this month.
Dimitri Sytyi, director of Bangui’s Russian House cultural center and special adviser to CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, said the operation by the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) and their Russian partners had taken place entirely within CAR territory, Radio Lengo Songo reported on October 20.
He said drone imagery, administrative maps and other materials showed that the targeted camps were inside the country.
CAR’s defense ministry said on October 10 that FACA, supported by Russian allies, had carried out air and ground operations in the northern Vakaga prefecture, near the borders with Chad and Sudan, killing fighters and seizing equipment.
Authorities said the action targeted fighters linked to Noureddine Adam, leader of the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), whom they accused of preparing an offensive. The operation occurred in the Nabagaye-Tissi area, near the CAR-Chad-Sudan tri-border zone.
Chad rejected that account. On October 11, Foreign Minister Ahmed Kogri summoned CAR Ambassador Jean-Bernard Léopold to protest what N’Djamena described as an incursion into Abnabak, in the Salamat region.
Chadian officials said artillery bombardments and raids had left civilians dead and 16 soldiers seriously injured. Chad characterized the incident as a violation of its sovereignty.
Sytyi nevertheless argued that armed groups operating along the frontier represent a common threat and called for joint mechanisms to secure the border. He said closer coordination between Bangui and N’Djamena could help prevent armed groups from exploiting the porous frontier.
Russia has become a central security partner for CAR, providing military support to government forces in their campaign against rebel coalitions. The dispute underscores the risks of cross-border military operations in the volatile tri-border region, where armed groups have long operated across weakly controlled boundaries. The confrontation has produced casualties, a diplomatic protest and competing accounts of the territorial limits of the operation.
