By RFIPosted on 15-07-2019Modified on 15-07-2019 at 20:40

Chinese mining companies responsible for "an ecological disaster in the region of Bozoum" north-west of Bangui, this is denounced a parliamentary report released Saturday, July 13. Interview with the rapporteur of the parliamentary mission.

This report, drawn up following the complaints of the populations, denounces at the same time the pollution generated by four Chinese companies, the complicity of the local officials and the violence, against the populations, committed by the Central African armed forces which protect the operators.

This report is not the first and the denunciations of abuses committed by the mining companies in the Central African Republic are recurrent. Parliamentary reports, ministerial reports, UN reports ... Since 2016, the report is still the same to know that many mining companies exploiting gold in the Central African Republic are abusing.

In July 2018, an interministerial investigation fined a Chinese company operating in the Yakolé region, which exploited gold without a permit. A few months earlier, the UN was pinning a mining cooperative working with other companies that employed former anti-balaka militiamen for their safety.

►Also read: In the Central African Republic, 116 mining licenses made public

Cases of non-compliance with commitments are increasing, be they social such as the construction of schools or clinics or environmental and problems related to the use of mercury and cyanide in the process of transformation.

In the case of Bozoum, the parliamentary report denounces "a real ecological disaster and pollution of the Ouham River " by the mining companies. He recommends stopping work. This report also denounces a recurrent phenomenon which is that of the complicity of local and national authorities. It recommends a judicial investigation into possible fraudulent implications of politicians and senior officials in obtaining business licenses.

"Automatic and unconditional shutdown of this operation"

The members of the parliamentary mission who drafted the report stayed in the Bozoum region for eight days at the beginning of July. Their statement goes against a government mission carried out three days apart. This is what Bernard Dillah, who led the parliamentary mission, said.

We can no longer recognize the flower Ouham. This river was used for fishing, drinking, washing ... Today, the water is completely polluted. [...] We met a head of a health post who told us that for a little over two months, the number of abortions has increased tenfold because women use this water.

Bernard Dillah

15-07-2019 - By Stanislas Ndayishimiye

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