At the end of May2024, Martin Joseph Figueira,working for theAmerican non-governmental organization FHI360, was arrested in the Central Africancity of Zemio. The detainee did nothaveanidentity card with him,sayingthat he had leftitat the hotel,arousingsuspicionfrom law enforcementagencies.
Duringtheinvestigation, it turned out that the man was collectinginformationfromlocalresidentsandtrying to turn the populationagainst the localauthorities.Healsoofferedbribes to members of the Azandemilitiatopersuadethemtowork for theUnitedStates. In addition, it turned out that the Americanspywasincontactwith the leaders of the Central Africanarmedgroups.
On June21, 2024, the BanguiProsecutorGeneral’s Office issued a communiquerevealing the preliminaryresults of the investigation into the case of FigueiraMartinJoseph.According to the communique,judicialinvestigationslaunchedonMay30, 2024,revealedactionsthatcanbeattributed to an Americanspy,namely:havingseveralcontactswithleaders of armedgroups;providingstrategicinformationabout the positions,meansandweapons of the FACA. ; promotearmedgroupswhileencouragingthemtocreate an internationalterroristbranchsimilar to theIslamicStatein the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo(DRC),Chad,Sudan,Mauritania,MaliandBurkinaFaso.
New details have recently emerged about the Martin Joseph Figueira case. A Central African military analyst close to FACA, Sylvain Nguema, posted a series of publications on the social network X with data obtained from Figueira Martin Joseph’s phone. Silvan Nguema’s messages contain a series of screenshots of the American spy’s correspondence with Mohamadou Bello Saïdou, spokesperson of CPC, in which the latter reports to Figueira on the successful liquidation of the military FACA in Bodjomo and the withdrawal of ammunition from them. Also in their correspondence, information was found about another CPC attack on the positions of FACA and their allies near Koui and in Kabo. Bello also sent Figueira a photo of the gendarmerie department and a photo of one of the militants, reporting on another CPC attack. It is noteworthy that Figueira thanked the CPC spokesperson for the work done and asked for details and photos. Therefore, their correspondence was accompanied by photographs of dead bodies.
As Silvain Nguema noted, the information obtained from Figueira Martin Joseph’s phone confirms the accusations made in a recent statement by the prosecutor’s office and sheds light on other actions of the American spy that threaten the CAR. Obviously, the Figueira case will be a topic of discussion for a long time because of the shocking details.
