Your account has been succesfully created.

Subscribe now

ALL ARTICLES CAR

Diplomacy 17/05/2022

France's 'hassling' of senior regime figures adds to tensions between Paris and Bangui

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sylvie Baïpo-Témon, and the Vice-President of the National Assembly, Evariste Ngamana. © Congolese Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Facebook/National Assembly

Spotlight

Politics Fintech 10/05/2022

Touadéra banks on bitcoin to avert bankruptcy

Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadera. © Michael Brochstein/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News

Politics 04/05/2022

Presidential party committee plans pro-Touadéra and anti-UN demos

Supporters of Central African Republic President hold a banner during a demonstration to demand a change of the constitution on 29 April. © Barbara Debout/AFP

Business Ports and airports 29/04/2022

Bolloré subsidiary ousted from Bangui port

A Bangui terminal in the Central African Republic. © Bolloré Port

Business Defence 28/04/2022

Bolloré still on hand to supply French army from Libreville to N'Djamena

Though in the midst of selling off its African logistics assets to the Italian-Swiss company MSC, the French giant Bolloré will continue to supply French bases in central Africa, from Gabon to Chad and the Central African Republic. [...]

Spotlight

Diplomacy 14/04/2022

Unease in Khartoum and N'Djamena as Kaka, Hemeti and Wagner dance a three-step

Left: The meeting between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mahamat Idriss Déby on 31 March. Right: Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. © Presidence.td - @GeneralDagllo/Twitter

Don't miss a single article on
CAR

Politics Defence 12/04/2022

Wagner takes on local hires

For several months, the Russian paramilitary group has been recruiting and training veterans of the Anti-Balaka and Seleka militias in the hinterland. [...]

Politics 05/04/2022

CAR tax authorities target NGOs

The Central African Republic government's search for fresh sources of cash has prompted prime minister Félix Moloua to focus on locally-based international non-governmental organisations as they represent a cornerstone of the country's economy. [...]

Politics 30/03/2022

The president's advisers rooting for Touadéra's third term

At the "national reconciliation dialogue" peace talks, which came to a close on 27 March in Bangui, the president's allies raised the idea of a constitutional change, which would allow the head of state to stand for a third term. [...]

CAR president Faustin-Archange Touadéra. © Spencer Platt/Pool/EPA/MaxPPP

Diplomacy 23/03/2022

Paris and Bangui continue to quarrel despite the release of four French soldiers from custody

Nearly a month after the arrest and the release of four French soldiers, Paris and Bangui are now arguing over the accommodation made available for French military cooperation personnel in the capital. [...]

Diplomacy 18/03/2022

Angola out on a limb as dialogue with CAR armed groups flounders

Armed group leader Maxime Mokom's arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court by the Chadian intelligence service is a serious blow to the Angola-led peace process, which Angola looks set to take a back seat in from now on. [...]

Diplomacy 15/03/2022

EU considers resumption of financial aid to Bangui

The European Union has not ruled out resuming financial support for Central African Republic. An EU delegation was in Bangui last week to discuss how it might resume the payment of budgetary support, estimated at €30m. [...]

Mining Commodity traders 09/03/2022

Why Trafigura has positioned itself on the Lobito-Kolwezi corridor

Swiss trader Trafigura, which is increasing its supply agreements in the DRC and Zambia, is keen to trump its competitors by having a copper transport route to Angola. Together with Mota-Engil and Vecturis, it has responded to the call for tenders to manage the rail corridor between Kolwezi and Lobito. [...]

Diplomacy 08/03/2022

CEMAC struggles to draw up its 2022 spending programme

The institution headed by former Gabonese prime minister Daniel Ona Ondo has set its 2022 spending programme at 94bn CFA francs. This looks like an increase on the previous year but, in fact, the failure of member states to pay their contributions will lead to a drastic reduction in its operating costs. [...]

The extraordinary meeting was called by CEMAC chairman, former Gabonese prime minister Daniel Ona Ondo. © Facebook/Commission CEMAC

Business Commodity traders 03/03/2022

Nicolae Buzaianu pitches bitcoin venture in CAR

Swiss-Romanian businessman Nicolae Bogdan Buzaianu, who is energetically courting officials in the Central African Republic, is looking beyond timber into generating cryptocurrency and setting up bitcoin mining centres in the country. [...]

Diplomacy 03/03/2022

Luanda keen for MINUSCA role

While Rwandan Valentine Rugwabiza has just been appointed head of the UN mission in CAR (MINUSCA), replacing the Senegalese diplomat Mankeur Ndiaye, another position within the UN operation has also attracted interest in recent weeks: [...]

Mining 25/02/2022

Enaex and Sasol move to dominate mining explosives supply in Walvis Bay

A partnership between Sasol and the Chilean firm Enaex, one of South America's leading mining explosive firms, is planning to build a huge warehouse to stock ammonium nitrate - the substance behind the catastrophe in the port of Beirut but widely used in the mining industry. [...]

Business Commodity traders 24/02/2022

Controversial trader Nicolae Buzaianu reinvents himself in Bangui

For a time the partner of the ex-Gambian president Yahya Jammeh in a rosewood venture, the Swiss-Romanian trader Nicolae Bogdan Buzaianu, whose business activities in both Gambia and Romania have attracted judicial scrutiny, has met with CAR president Faustin-Archange Touadéra several times of late. [...]

Diplomacy 24/02/2022

Paris jumps into action after French peacekeepers' arrest

The arrest of four French soldiers on 21 February has raised tensions between Bangui and Paris. The French foreign ministry has sent several messages to the president's office in CAR calling for their release and on 22 February it suspended the delivery of all new visas for France. [...]

Business Defence 22/02/2022

Ex-Ecolog staffer Gordana Chuchurska continues to work for MINUSCA through United Development

Thanks to the extensive contacts network of its managing director Gordana Chuchurska, young Dubai logistics company United Development FZE has just won its first substantial contract from the United Nations. [...]

Focus Politics Defence 21/02/2022

Guterres gets tough in wake of peacekeeper abuse scandals

The decision was as sudden as it was shrouded in mystery: on 15 September, four months before Gabon joined the Security Council, the UN told Gabonese peacekeepers deployed in the Central African Republic to leave the country, citing cases of sexual abuse. [...]

The Gabonese contingent of the Minusca in 2019. © UN/Minusca/Igor Rugwiza

Diplomacy 18/02/2022

MINUSCA awaits appointment of new boss

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is preparing to appoint a Rwandan diplomat to replace Mankeur Ndiaye at the head of the UN mission in the Central African Republic. [...]

Mankeur Ndiaye, head of MINUSCA, with Rwandan diplomat Valentine Rugwabiza, who is expected to succeed him. © Mankeur Ndiaye/Twitter

Diplomacy 17/02/2022

Touadéra eager to meet with Macron

Central African president Faustin Archange Touadéra has been making repeated appeals to Paris in recent days with a view to meeting with Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the European Union-African Union summit. For the moment, the French government is politely stalling for time. [...]

French president Emmanuel Macron and his Central African counterpart Faustin Archange Touadéra during their last meeting in September 2019. © Aurélien Morissard/IP3 Press/MaxPPP

Politics 09/02/2022

Touadéra chooses not to rock the boat with new PM Moloua

Prime minister Henri-Marie Dondra's dismissal was a victory for those members of the president's entourage who fought hard to see him go. But their triumph may be shortlived as his successor Félix Moloua has a very similar profile to that of his predecessor. [...]

New prime minister of Central African Republic, Félix Moloua. © Flickr AfDB Group

Business Defence 08/02/2022

United Nations ramp up use of intelligence drones across peacekeeping missions Free

In Mali, as in the Central African Republic, UN peacekeeping missions are increasingly reaching out to private contractors to hire drones to boost their intelligence capabilities, in a move backed at the highest level in New York. [...]

The new head of the MINUSMA forces Lieutenant General Cornelis Johannes Matthijssen. © United nations

Don't miss a single article on
CAR

New: Sign up for real-time alerts and be notified of new editions!