The Central African Republic's prime minister has been sacked against the backdrop of tensions between pro-Russian and pro-French factions within the government in Bangui.
Henri-Marie Dondra was named prime minister in June 2021, shortly after Paris froze budgetary aid to Bangui, accusing it of "complicity" in what Paris called a Russian "disinformation" campaign against the country's former colonial ruler France.
According to a spokesman for the Presidency, Dondra was reportedly "fired" and replaced by his economy minister, Felix Moloua, confirming a weekend report by online news website Africa Intelligence.
The move came as CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera was attending an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Moloua, a Touadera loyalist and a technocrat, was sworn-in as prime minister earlier this Wednesday.
#Centrafrique 🇨🇫 Handing over between the outgoing Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the incoming Félix Moloua this February 9 at the Primature.
— XLR Media (@xlr_media) February 9, 2022
📸 Fridolin Ngoulou pic.twitter.com/yOqX2GeEIE
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Russian influence
Moscow's importance in the Central African Republic has increased steadily over the past four years.
In 2020 Russian military contractors alongside Rwandan troops were called upon to subdue a rebellion against Touadera.
With their help, CAR government forces recaptured as much as two-thirds of the country - and several major towns - that had fallen under rebel control.
At the time of Dondra's appointment as prime minister he was perceived as more "pro-French" than his predecessor Firmin Ngrebada, seen as more sympathetic to Moscow.
Mineral-rich but rated the world's second-poorest country according to the UN's Human Development Index, the CAR has been chronically unstable since independence 60 years ago.
A civil war broke out in 2013, pitting multiple militia groups against a state on the verge of collapse, leaving thousands of people dead and forcing more than a quarter of the 5 million population to flee their homes.
