https://www.miningweekly.com

Looming crisis in CAR prompts call for mining contract assessment

2nd August 2013

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A looming new crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) has prompted a call for an assessment of mining contracts and a review of the diamond supply chain.

The Central Africa International Crisis Group warns in a document just released to Mining Weekly Online that CAR is facing new problems that could scuttle the already fragile transition to formal government.

“The situation is not pretty,” says Central Africa International Crisis Group project director Thierry Vircoulon, who pays frequent resources-related visits to South Africa, the last on Kimberley Process business.

Should the transition fail, the crisis group asserts that the troubled country, located in the heart of the African continent, would be ungovernable.

As one of a long list of proposals, it recommends that the African Development Bank be allowed to assess the mining and oil contracts that the former regime signed, to determine if these meet the sector’s standards.

It also wants mandatory administrative controls restored to ensure the integrity of the diamonds supply chain and a Kimberley Process review mission organised in all diamond-producing areas to investigate the diamond smuggling networks in CAR.

The Seleka rebels took over Bangui, CAR’s capital, in March during an attack that claimed the lives of several South African soldiers.

Now strife within the Seleka rebel coalition, the proliferation of weapons in Bangui and the deterioration of the social environment are threatening a country that is already a haven for armed groups.

State collapse would pave the way for new criminal networks to undermine regional stability still further.

To prevent decline, the crisis group is urging the country’s international partners to move beyond “wait-and-see”, as the fragile new government is hopelessly short of capacity to secure the country, organise elections, restore public services and implement judicial, economic and social reforms.

The coup by the Seleka rebel coalition in March ended François Bozizé’s decade-long rule.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

Showroom image
Alcohol Breathalysers

Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers

VISIT SHOWROOM 
WearCheck
WearCheck

Leading condition monitoring specialists, WearCheck, help boost machinery lifespan and reduce catastrophic component failure through the scientific...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.13 0.173s - 106pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now