Central African Republic (CAR)

The Central African Republic is a landlocked Central African country of roughly 5.5 million people, with its capital and primary media centre in Bangui. The country’s two official languages are French and Sango; the currency is the Central African CFA franc (XAF), issued in the BEAC zone and conventionally pegged to the euro. Central African Republic gained independence from France on 13 August 1960, following its territorial existence as the colony of Ubangi-Shari.

The political system is a presidential republic dominated by the Mouvement Cœurs Unis (MCU), the ruling party of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, in office since 30 March 2016. A 2023 constitutional referendum removed presidential term limits and extended the presidential term to seven years. In the 28 December 2025 coupled general elections, held alongside legislative, regional, and municipal polls, Touadéra was declared re-elected for a third term; provisional results announced on 5 January 2026 gave him 76.15% of the vote, but the Constitutional Council confirmed the final result on 19 January 2026 at 77.9%, after rejecting a challenge lodged by former Prime Minister Anicet-Georges Dologuélé (final 13.5%); former Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra (2.97%) acknowledged Touadéra’s victory and declined to appeal. Part of the opposition had called for a boycott of the polls. Touadéra was sworn in for his third term in March 2026.

Central African Republic’s state-media architecture is among the most structurally consolidated configurations in the State Media Monitor sample for sub-Saharan Africa. The country’s three main state-aligned outlets, Télévision Centrafricaine (TVCA), Radio Centrafrique, and the Agence Centrafricaine de Presse (ACAP), are all organised as directorates within the Ministry of Communication and Media rather than as autonomous public-service entities; none has an independent governing board, a dedicated public-broadcaster or public-agency statute, or visible statutory editorial-independence guarantees. The ministry is currently led by Minister Maxime Balalou, who also serves as government spokesperson.

The country’s media-regulatory environment is shaped by the 2020 Law on Freedom of Communication, which replaced an earlier 2005 framework, and by the Haut Conseil de la Communication (HCC), the formal regulator. Reporters Without Borders has flagged the country’s press-freedom environment as marked by chronic insecurity, the propagation of disinformation, the precarious economic situation of journalists who rely on event per-diem payments as a primary income source, and recurring efforts since 2022 to recriminalise press offences.

Radio Ndeke Luka, created by the Swiss Fondation Hirondelle in 2000, is widely regarded as the dominant independent radio source, structurally outcompeting Radio Centrafrique within the country’s domestic information environment. The 8 May 2025 detention of Le Quotidien de Bangui editor Landry Ulrich Nguéma Ngokpélé on charges including “inciting hatred against the government” and “disseminating information tending to cause public disorder” underscored the continued criminalisation risk facing Central African journalists. A draft “foreign agents” law modelled on Russian-style legislation has been under discussion since October 2024; reports indicate it faced civil-society opposition and was not adopted in its initial form.

The most consequential verified 2025 inflection point in the Central African information environment was the formal integration of ACAP into Russian state-media partnerships. On 21 February 2025, ACAP signed a cooperation agreement with Sputnik International News Agency and Radio, part of the Rossiya Segodnya state media group, with the support of the Russian Embassy in Central African Republic; the agreement covered intensified information exchange, mutual reliance on each other’s expertise for joint projects, and joint events, and made ACAP Sputnik’s first official media partner in the country. Two days earlier, on 19 February 2025, Central African media reported a separate cooperation agreement between ACAP and the Russian state broadcaster RT (Russia Today), a distinct institution from Rossiya Segodnya, covering information-material exchange, joint multimedia content, and journalist training. Both agreements fit within a broader trajectory of Russian-linked media influence in Central African Republic, documented by press-freedom and investigative reporting since Wagner’s arrival in 2018.

In August 2025, Russia formally requested the replacement of Wagner mercenaries ,who have protected Touadéra and his government and have played a key role in Central African security operations, with the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps, a unit under the direct command of the Russian Ministry of Defence, demanding cash payments for security services. Central African authorities reportedly resisted, preferring Wagner’s existing arrangements and mineral-based compensation rather than large cash payments. On 13 November 2025, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2800, renewing MINUSCA’s mandate until 15 November 2026 by 14 votes in favour and one abstention by the United States, signalling continued multilateral engagement with Central African stabilisation even as Russian institutional presence in the country’s security, governance, and information architectures deepens.

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