Inside Africa: Two Decades Of Civil War In Central African Republic -- What A Meme-Coin Won’t Fix

Muhammad Aqib

Faustin-Archange Touadéra once said on X, formerly Twitter: “Mathematics is the #language of the Universe. #Bitcoin is universal money.” The current president of the Central African Republic (CAR), originally a Doctor of Mathematics, is making significant strides towards cryptography in economics as the leader of the landlocked country in the heart of the African continent. In 2022, CAR became the second country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender, after El Savador. On the 10th of February 2025, Touadéra announced the launch of a CAR meme coin destined to “support national development” and “unite people”, in his words.

Embracing cryptocurrencies is far from conventional behaviour for the government of any country, despite its popularity among the likes of US president Donald Trump or Argentina’s Javier Milei. But CAR defies even those countries’ new definitions of normal governance. Since it first achieved statehood after colonial independence from France in 1960, CAR has seen extreme political instability.

Six times in its independent history, a change in government has occurred through forceful coup d’états. In the last 20 years, CAR has hosted more or less the same brutal civil war, which began when fighting broke out between rebels in the north known as the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and government forces led by then-president Francis Bozizé, who had taken power in a coup in 2003. Between 2004 and 2007, they fought the Central African Bush war, which ended in a peace agreement signed by both parties.

Yet this would be the first in a series of 7 failed peace treaties, as attacks from rebels in the northern regions continued, now under the name of Séléka (which means ‘alliance’ in Sango, a commonly spoken language in the country). Séléka forces, largely representing the Muslim minority population of CAR in the north, renewed fighting not long after the peace agreement, attacking the capital Bangui in 2012 and finally taking the country in March 2013.

Their rebel leader Michael Djotodia became president of CAR, but he failed to dissolve the various rebel groups which made up Séléka Forces, resulting in continued violence and the rise of ‘anti-balaka’, a union of Christian fighter groups which set out to defeat Séléka fighters and notably, persecute and kill Muslims.

A UN security council peacekeeping force called MINUSCA, made up of troops from the African Union as well as French troops who had previously been on the ground, was deployed in April 2014. But it has failed to contain and defeat what has since been numerous clashes between the various rebel groups and attacks against civilians, mostly persecution between Christians and Muslims.

Since Touadéra came to power in March 2016, the crisis only intensified. Most armed groups ignored or boycotted his territorial partition between Muslims and Christians, or his numerous calls to lay down arms, and a peace agreement, despite its signature in June 2017. Fighting between ex-Séléka factions began around this time, and multiple aid agencies pulled out of the country after being repeatedly targeted in attacks.

Adding to the complexity, Muslim Séléka and Christian anti-balaka fighters, which previously fought one another, banded together in 2020 to oppose Touadéra in elections. They formed the Patriots for Change (CPC) militia and charged on Bangui. MINUSCA repelled initial attacks, and Touadéra successfully repelled rebels from the capital and reclaimed control of the country, enlisting the help of Rwandan soldiers and the notorious mercenary Wagner group.

To draw a long arc, this is how CAR settled into the ongoing political crisis which has crippled the country’s economy, placing more than 70% in poverty, and displacing more than 500,000 within the country and more than 750,000 to neighbouring Cameroon and the DRC. In a country that lacks any significant means to build up the appropriate infrastructure to mobilise funds and investment, Touadéra is looking to create an alternative way to secure financial value.

But his crypto ambitions have failed dramatically. Shortly after its launch on twitter, the meme coin $CAR plummeted from a peak at $600million to beneath 10% of that value. The legislation to make Bitcoin legal tender in 2022 was also reversed just under a year later. It’s not surprising these attempts to introduce technological alternatives to currency have failed in CAR. More than 85% of the population in the country lacks access to electricity, and only 10% has access to internet -- both essential for cryptocurrencies to exist.

And even if it had worked, meme-coins are a faux-pas way of assembling funds for sustainable development and wealth. Since they hinge upon a ‘meme’ (i.e.: a cultural reference or moment of shared value), and their value is solely determined by hype and speculation, they rarely generate any reliable yield and are usually high-risk investments.

Tony Olendo, a specialist in cryptocurrencies, told DW news: “[Meme coins] have no intrinsic value, they have no utility. They’re meant to be fun, they’re meant to capture a unit of culture, and they’re meant to have meaning inside of a particular collective group.” @Zilhub, a notable trader on X, told Modern Treatise: “When a country or famous individual makes a meme-coin, the first few hours are usually where attention peaks. Then it becomes old news.” He went on to say: “It’s a zero-sum game, full of scammers and insiders.” 

Moments after the coin launched, the website and X account went offline, and the government scrambled to reassure followers and restore the technical issue. Scam Sniffer, a cybersecurity company, detected a user credential theft bot through CoinGecko, a well-known crypto data aggregator. Another security firm, SlowMist, found that on the trading platform GMGNAI, a malware breaching virus had been embedded in a redirect link. Some have also called the entire program a deepfake, though Touadéra strongly denies this. 

Scams surrounding meme-coins have been surprisingly common recently. In the month of February, at least two incidents of political impersonations designed to trick people into buying cryptocurrencies have occurred online. One in Malaysia, when former Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad’s X account was hacked, another when Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu was used in a fake account impersonating him. Argentina’s president Javier Milei also recently encouraged fans to purchase a coin, only for it to fail, costing his followers thousands, if not millions. Many are calling for him to resign.

It seems unlikely Touadéra’s $CAR was a scam though. Aside from his track record with crypto experimentation, the coin was legitimately promoted on official accounts, and the videos have also passed multiple AI verification tools, suggesting they were not faked, but real.

Rather than deceiving innocent followers, Touadéra was simply trying to follow a movement of political shifts towards cryptocurrencies which, while still experimental today, might yield positive results in the future. Across Africa, notably in its two largest economies Nigeria and South Africa, Bitcoin is becoming increasingly popular. It is estimated that in Africa and Latin America alone, $540 billions worth of Bitcoin were traded in 2024. 

Yet, there are worries Touadéra might also have less noble objectives. Part of CAR’s current security deal with the Wagner Group gives mercenaries access to Gold and Diamond mines across the country in exchange for their military services. The UN speculates that, considering Touadéra has also been seen cosying up to Vladimir Putin, Russia might be using cryptocurrencies to funnel wealth from CAR into its economy, bypassing economic sanctions currently straining the Rouble. If this were Touadéra’s true intention, the Central African Republic would not see a “symbol of unity” in the meme-coin. Only more war.