Four witnesses told The Daily Beast that large numbers of children had been seen in gold and diamond mines controlled by the Wagner Group since a spate of massacres killed scores if not hundreds of artisan mine workers—and forced many more to flee—in the Central African Republic (CAR).

“I counted up to 20 children in a gold mine controlled by Russian fighters near Bambari [in the central part of the country],” Sylvestre, a 27-year-old artisanal miner based in Bambari, told The Daily Beast. “One of those I saw is someone here in Bambari whose mother had said he had been kidnapped by Russian soldiers.”

“Children are now being brought into gold mines as workers while established artisanal miners are chased away, or killed, by these Russian soldiers,” said Sylvestre, who—like other miners residing in CAR—The Daily Beast is choosing to identify by his first name to protect him from possible retribution.