Notarial documents obtained by PPLAAF, based on information provided by a whistleblower, reveal that in 2017, Prisca Roseline Passet Mamadou, the wife of the current Chief of Staff of the Central African Armed Forces and now a recently elected member of parliament, purchased an apartment of nearly 110 square meters in Suresnes, outside Paris, for 700,000 euros. An investigation conducted in partnership with Mediapart raises questions about the origin of part of the funds used to finance the purchase.
Although the apartment is located on the ground floor of a residential building, it enjoys an exceptional setting. Perched on the slopes of Mont Valérien, in western Paris, it overlooks the Bois de Boulogne, with the Eiffel Tower perfectly framed in the distance.
Between the apartment blocks, a landscaped garden with mature trees, a children’s playground, and a basketball court define the everyday life of this family-oriented residence. It is here that the children of General Zéphirin Mamadou and Prisca Roseline Passet grew up. Even before purchasing the property, the family is believed to have rented another apartment in the same residence.
On 5 September 2017, at a notary’s office in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Prisca Roseline Passet Mamadou signed the deed to purchase one of the largest apartments in the complex, measuring 109.69 square meters. The property includes four bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room opening onto both a loggia and a balcony. The total purchase price was 700,000 euros. PPLAAF and Mediapart have confirmed that she remains the owner of the apartment today and that members of her family continue to live there.
Paid in Full
The notarial deed states that the 2017 purchase was completed without a bank loan. Yet the purchase price represented 1,882 times the gross national income per capita in the Central African Republic, which the World Bank estimated at just USD 420 (372 euros) in 2017.
Despite its abundant natural resources—including oil, gold, and diamonds—the Central African Republic remains one of the poorest and most fragile countries in the world. Nearly two-thirds of the population (65.3%) lives in extreme poverty, surviving on less than USD 2.15 per person per day. The country ranks 150th out of 182 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
Although Zéphirin Mamadou was neither a general nor Chief of Staff of the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) in 2017—he would only assume those positions a year after the purchase—the transaction could nevertheless have attracted scrutiny. At the time, Colonel Mamadou was already a politically exposed person, serving as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence.
His wife, meanwhile, appeared in several news reports in 2011 under the name “Prisca Passet,” where she was criticised for spending 19,000 euros (12.45 million CFA francs) on fuel expenses while working at the National Gendarmerie’s headquarters.
Senior Civil Servant and Beneficiary of State Contracts
Today, Prisca Passet Mamadou serves as Director of Finance and Accounting at the Ministry of Public Security, where she oversees the gendarmerie and police’s costly procurement contracts, according to the specialist outlet Africa Intelligence in 2023.
According to Jeune Afrique, her “close ties to military circles” have also enabled her to become “one of the army’s preferred suppliers, particularly for equipment and logistics.”
In 2024, as fuel shortages worsened and the Central African government requisitioned several petrol stations, local media reported that she was appointed to manage three of them in the capital.
One year later, in December 2025, she was elected to parliament as a member of the ruling party, Mouvement cœurs unis (MCU). Africa Intelligence described her as “close to President Faustin-Archange Touadéra” and as a “major donor to his party.”
In a report published that same year, the NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) concluded that fuel distribution in the Central African Republic operated “in a manner comparable to a cartel,” controlled by government officials and private actors. According to the report, this network “artificially maintains high prices to maximise profits” and generated between USD 17.5 million and USD 30 million in excess revenues, distributed “through a well-organised pyramid system of kickbacks.”
Her husband, Zéphirin Mamadou, has also been the target of criticism in the Central African press, including allegations of embezzling military funds, human rights abuses, and, more recently, involvement in an alleged coup plot. He has consistently denied all such accusations.
Nearly half a million euros transferred by an unknown company
Perhaps in anticipation of questions, the property deed obtained by PPLAAF states that Prisca Mamadou declared that the majority of the funds used for the purchase had been acquired before her marriage in 2009.
Between June and July 2017, 450,000 euros were reportedly transferred to France from a bank account held at Ecobank’s Central African subsidiary in the name of BAC DE KJ SERVICE, a Central African company with virtually no online presence. The company has neither a website nor a clearly identifiable registered office online, and its business activities are difficult to verify through publicly available sources.
According to a LinkedIn profile, BAC DE KJ SERVICE is managed by a member of the Mamadou family, Brice Davy Mamadou Docketh. However, according to information obtained during our investigation, he has also appeared on the personnel register of the Central African Armed Forces since 2015, where he is reportedly still listed while simultaneously presenting himself as an entrepreneur.
As for the remaining 250,000 euros, the notarial deed does not specify the account from which the funds were transferred. It states only that this sum, “together with all associated costs,” would be paid using “funds belonging to the marital community”—that is, assets acquired during the marriage under the couple’s community property regime. Nevertheless, Prisca Passet Mamadou took care to specify that “the community’s contribution is less than her own personal contribution.”
Zéphirin and Prisca Mamadou did not respond to questions from PPLAAF and Mediapart.
PPLAAF has previously conducted similar investigations involving politically exposed persons from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Nigeria. These investigations concerned assets worth tens of millions of euros.
