A Russian citizen closely linked to the Wagner group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin has been injured in an assassination attempt in the Central African Republic, according to Prigozhin and Russian officials.Dmitry Syty, who runs the “Russian House” in the capital of CAR, Bangui, received a package that exploded in his hands, according to the press service of Concord, Prigozhin’s holding company.Prigozhin said Syty’s last words before falling unconscious and taken to hospital were: “I saw a note: ‘This is for you from all the French, the Russians will get out of Africa.’”Wagner’s presence in the CAR, where it has trained and fought with the local armed forces, has been controversial.CNN investigations have linked Wagner and associated entities with the lucrative diamond trade in central Africa as well as multiple human rights abuses in the country, where the army has been fighting a number of rebel factions.“I have already applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation so that it initiates the procedure for declaring France a state sponsor of terrorism, as well as conducting a thorough investigation of the terrorist methods of France and its Western allies – the United States and others.”A Russian group in CAR associated with the Russian House in Bangui said Syty’s “condition is serious and doctors are fighting for his life.”The official Russian news agency TASS quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying: “The assassination attempt on the head of the Russian house in the Central African Republic is an inhuman terrorist act that requires strong condemnation.”He said: “Russia will make every effort to find the organizers of the assassination attempt on the head of the Russian House in the Central African Republic."