Prince Ngoma was just about to depart a mining site in Central African Republic’s (CAR) eastern village of Aïgbado when heavily armed Russian mercenaries in a pickup truck drove in, opened fire, and burned down the houses in the area.

“They didn’t speak a word to anyone, only their guns did the talking,” said Ngoma, who was only there to meet a friend. “I saw people screaming and falling on the ground. It was only by luck that I survived.”

For about 20 minutes at around noon on Jan. 16, Ngoma said, the Russians opened fire repeatedly before fighters from the Union for Peace (UPC) rebel group, which the mercenaries have constantly targeted, showed up and began to fire back, wounding about four fighters and causing the Russians to retreat.

“We counted eight bodies after the Russians had left,” he told The Daily Beast. “These were civilians killed at the spot during the shooting.”

But the Russians weren’t satisfied. As hundreds of frightened villagers ran to the nearby Yanga community (located 40 miles from Aïgbado), the Russian mercenaries, this time accompanied by CAR government forces commonly referred to as FACA, chased them there and slaughtered as many people as they could.

“The killings went on for two days.” Abdoulaye Ishmael, a farmer in Yanga, told The Daily Beast. “Since the incident happened, we've counted up to 70 dead bodies.”

The United Nations, through its spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, said it has received reports of the incident involving CAR troops and “other security personnel” and is “currently confirming the number of casualties and displacement.” The human rights team in the country known as MINUSCA has been dispatched to the area—and they may be shocked by what they find.

Locals say there are corpses littered in the forest between Aïgbado and Yanga, while fishermen at the Kotto River that passes through Yanga have retrieved 14 dead bodies, including women and children, according to local reports.

“Everyday, we keep seeing new dead bodies,” said Ishmael. “The number of people killed by the Russians could be much more than what we’ve seen or heard so far.”

Reports of Russian aggression in CAR have become commonplace. Since the 2018 killings of three Russian journalists who were investigating the local activities of Wagner Group, a mercenary outfit linked to Russia President Vladimir Putin’s close associate Yevgeny Prigozhin, hostility towards locals in the impoverished Central African nation has been on the rise.

In December 2020, Wagner mercenaries fired on a truck for failing to stop at a checkpoint in the town of Bambari, injuring the driver and killing three passengers, according to a CNN report. Two months later, Russians opened fire at a mosque in Bambari, killing about 21 people, including children and the elderly, before burning down homes nearby. Last March, it was also reported that the Russians shot and killed a local chief, whom they had accused of having a soft spot for the rebels near the town of Bambari. A month after, Wagner mercenaries kidnapped four community leaders from Bria and, as The Daily Beast previously reported, flew them to an undisclosed location before storming Koui to seize the sultan of the northwestern town, along with his bodyguard and assistant. They announced much later that the three men had been killed in a landmine explosion not far from the sultan’s house.

The latest spate of atrocities which began in mid-January may still be unfolding. Sources told The Daily Beast that the Russians have blocked access to Aïgbado and Yanga and restricted movements in and out of the communities. The local media is reporting that the mercenaries have set up an outpost in Aïgbado and anyone who tries to leave the village is shot at. Residents say everyone is living in fear.

“Everyone in Aïgbado is scared of walking on the streets because anything can happen to you if you come face to face with the Russians and FACA,” said Ngoma. “There are a number of villagers missing since January 16, and we suspect they've been killed or abducted by Russian mercenaries and FACA.”

Since December 2017, when Russia secured an exemption to the UN arms embargo, allowing Moscow to deliver arms and training for CAR forces, Wagner mercenaries have appeared all over the restive African nation, often guarding lucrative gold and diamond mines. Wagner recruits many of its mercenaries from the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU. Prigozhin—often called “Putin’s chef” because of the huge contracts handed out to his catering company—is the mastermind behind both Wagner and Russia’s involvement in CAR and Africa; it is unknown how closely he consults with his comrades in the Kremlin

Prigozhin’s private military has also been linked to recent coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, both of which also have major gold mines.

Regarded as one of the world’s poorest nations, the CAR descended into civil war in 2013. A mainly Muslim rebel coalition called Séléka took control of the capital Bangui, overthrew the government, and began plundering villages. They also targeted Christians and supporters of the former president. In response, Christian vigilantes began a bloody program of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim minority, causing the UN to impose an arms embargo and create a peacekeeping mission.

Muslim rebels and Christian militants still control much of the country and continue to fight each other to take control of territory and mineral resources. A helpless Faustin-Archange Touadéra, who was sworn in as president in 2016, turned to Russia for security assistance months after taking office and Moscow accepted but with an agreement to allow Russia to explore CAR’s natural resources, and Wagner mercenaries are doing so with brutality.

“What happened here in Aïgbado confirms what people have been saying, that going to a gold mine in this country is like a death sentence,” said Ngoma. “You just can’t survive in an environment where the Russians are so interested.”

I’ve read quite a few complaints that Euphoria’s second season, so far, is a meandering, pointless mess. I can’t say that the series has ever been laser-focused on what it wants to say about modern adolescence. And honestly, I have a better time consuming it as a teenage, R-rated Seinfeld. But the time we spent exploring each character in season one felt more balanced, at least. It’s frustrating that Kat and Maddy are being sidelined in order to give Cal, of all people, some interiority. And that interiority is a bunch of crap.

As far as the story goes, Sam Levinson has seemingly run out of ways to make Rue’s drug addiction compelling or even nerve-wracking to watch. The fact that he had to throw in a drug-dealing subplot to add more stakes to her already precarious life is telling. She’s had several near-death experiences. Most of her relationships are either significantly damaged or extremely fragile at this point. This episode, she falls into the arms of Labrinth playing a cantor in a literal coming-t0-Jesus sequence after getting high again. Unfortunately, I’m really not sure where else there is to go with this relapse storyline besides the most obvious outcome.

As most of us predicted last week, Jules and Elliot’s relationship becomes sexual. There’s a lot of flirting and rolling around and sucking thumbs. As much as Jules likes being physically desired, I wish she was written as a slightly better partner to Rue or at least honest enough to express that she’s not fulfilling her needs, considering that she’s genuinely concerned about Rue’s well-being. Likewise, she’s devastated when Elliot finally reveals that Rue hasn’t been sober.

It’s safe to say Cassie and Nate’s affair and the hope that Fez and Lexi will ride off into the sunset has kept this season exciting. “You Who Cannot See, Think Of Those Who Can” spends a lot of time building suspense around whether Cassie will come clean. Hence, she gets into an argument with Nate when she finds he met up with Maddy to try to rekindle their relationship. This scene’s direction and dialogue gave me flashbacks to Levinson’s 2021 film Malcolm and Marie with all the primal screaming and awkward rebuttals. There’s a point when Cassie tries to justify their hooking-up with the fact that Nate and Maddy were split, to which Nate responds, “that is a comfort to nobody but you!” like he’s reciting Shakespeare.

It’s hard to tell whether Cassie is suffering more from guilt, as we watch her look through scrapbook photos of her and Maddy, or disappointment that Nate is emotionally unavailable to her. Regardless, she has a meltdown when Nate shows up at a birthday gathering she hosts for Maddy and starts guzzling alcohol. At the end of the night, she ends up changing into a sexy bathing suit to get Nate’s attention and vomiting on everyone when they sit in a jacuzzi. She starts crying and aggressively saying sorry to Maddy. Everyone, besides Nate, assumes she’s talking about the vomit. But we all know what she’s really apologizing for.

Lexi’s presence at the party reaffirmed the worry I expressed last week about this whole “more than just a supporting character” bit. It’s been well-established, starting in season one, that Lexi is quiet and observant. But what’s actually going on in her brain besides a diary of other people’s problems? There are multiple shots of Lexi watching Cassie make bad decisions throughout the night, but she doesn’t say anything. When Lexi inquires about Cassie’s weight in another scene, Cassie quickly shuts her down. This moment becomes material for her play, as we watch several girls audition for Cassie’s character. Still, there’s nothing inherently interesting about this sisterly dynamic without hearing more of Lexi’s perspective.

“Still, there’s nothing inherently interesting about this sisterly dynamic without hearing more of Lexi’s perspective.”
Meanwhile, her flirtation with Fez has seemingly been put on hold. To be fair, Fez has bigger problems when Custer informs him that Mouse’s baby mama was asking questions about his disappearance. It’s not clear if Mouse is dead or just severely injured and tied up in a basement. But I’m glad we’re circling back to that incident because it seemed like too neat of a conclusion for that whole conflict.

Before that conversation though, we see Fez, Faye and Ashtray smoking and watching the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which Faye describes as “so real.” So far, everything that’s come out of Faye’s mouth has unexpectedly made me laugh. And I’m deeply interested in seeing more of what goes on in this trap house.

Unfortunately, we get less of that and more of Cal, whose spiraling sucks the air out of this episode. He starts drinking by himself and harassing Nate before he goes to Maddy’s party. Then we get a million cutaways to him driving wildly on a freeway. It feels like a fatal accident is about to happen, which honestly would’ve been a better alternative to what occurs later on. But he makes it safely to the bar where he kissed Derek back in the day and slow-dances with another man before getting himself kicked out. He then drives back home where he comes out to his family in the most obnoxious and deranged fashion.

This bloated scene is equally frustrating and hilarious in its execution, from Eric Dane’s over-the-top drunk-acting to his bombastic spiel about repression and shame. This monologue might have worked better if it wasn’t so self-victimizing. But Cal blames much of his closeted-ness on his wife and sons, as if they aren’t products of his internalized homophobia and fear of coming out. His indictment of Nate, in particular, is mind-boggling, as if he didn’t raise his son to be a nightmare and isn’t currently traumatizing him with the whole DVD scandal. He also tries to shame his other son Aaron for his completely fine porn preferences and equate them to his “secrets,” which include video-taping sexual partners without their consent and assaulting at least one minor that we know of.

As much as Levinson tries to give Cal a bold, triumphant exit, he makes him look more like a coward. I wish I could say that Cal’s point-of-view isn’t necessarily being endorsed here. (And I think Levinson understands that he’s at least partially a trash human being). But everything about this scene, from its blocking to the script, feels like Levinson trying to manufacture a mic-drop moment. I think it’s fair to say that nothing about Cal’s life circumstances warrants the psychopathic behavior he’s displayed for two seasons. It all feels reminiscent of Kevin Spacey’s weird coming-out that was attached to his statement acknowledging sexual-assualt allegations. Unfortunately for Levinson, this show’s audience is too smart to give Cal any sort of pat on the back.

Overall, the thesis of this episode seems to be that we’re all hiding something. Cassie and Nate are hiding their affair from Maddy. Nate’s trying to hide Cal’s DVD. Rue’s hiding her addiction from practically everyone. Jules will most likely hide her feelings for Elliot from Rue. Kat’s hiding how much she hates Ethan (this is one of three statements she makes in the entire episode). Fez and Ashtray are probably hiding a dead body. Lexi’s hiding all of her feelings. Hopefully, with Cal out of the picture, we don’t have to wait any longer for these secrets to come to light. ( Daily Beast)