The head of the Russian cultural centre in Bangui “Russian House”, Dmitry Sytyi, gave his first interview since the attempted attack on him on 16 December 2022. In this interview on the RT channel, he explained in detail what happened on that unfortunate day.
According to Dmitry Sytyi, the night before he received notification of a package that was in the DHL office in Bangui. The next morning, he sent his assistant to DHL to pick it up. When his associate returned, he handed him the package, which turned out to contain a USB stick. The head of the Russian House was alone in his office when he opened the package and plugged it into his computer. He said that he found it strange that the USB stick was heavier than usual, but that he did not pay attention to it.
As he plugged the stick into the computer, he received a message on his home phone and turned away from the computer to read it. Suddenly there was a flash of light. He was stunned and in shock, he did not immediately realise what had happened. Then Dmitry Sytyi saw that instead of his arm he had a bloody mass of bones and meat. He looked at his shirt, it was torn and blood was flowing from his chest. It was only then that he realised that something terrible had happened. His colleagues rushed into the office and called an ambulance.
He was taken in a serious condition to a hospital where Russian doctors were working. After his life was saved, he was evacuated to Russia for treatment.
The government of the Central African Republic strongly condemned this terrorist attack against a high-ranking representative of the Russian mission and thus against the Russian presence in the Central African Republic, and announced the immediate opening of a judicial enquiry to shed light on this heinous act.
The investigation has now found the sender. Investigators have obtained video surveillance images showing the sender of the package. He is a white male, aged between 30 and 40, who sent the package from Togo. The suspect provided Spanish documents in Alex’s name and is now wanted.
According to the investigation, which is now underway, it has emerged that the explosive device that the head of the Russian House received was created in a special laboratory. It is not the kind of device that can be made in a garage. It is a USB stick containing a military explosive device, with a charge comparable to that of a 40 mm grenade. It takes a laboratory to fit such a powerful charge into a small USB stick.
More importantly for the investigation, there are not many such military laboratories in Africa. It is therefore suspected that the CIA was behind the attack and had the capacity to manufacture such explosive devices.
