ADF STAFF
Chinese mining operations have been responsible for environmental damage in the Central African Republic (CAR), devastating the natural resources upon which local communities depend.
Occasionally the conflict boils over, pitting villagers against Chinese nationals and the security forces they’ve hired for protection.
That’s what happened over several days in late August and early September, prompting regional journalist Alexis Marcelin Yanga to use the term “uprising” in her reporting.
“For several months the revolt has been brewing,” she wrote for Corbeau News Centrafrique.
Environmental conflict turned into violence August 30 near the mining village of Gaga in the northwestern part of the Ombella-M’Poko prefecture.
Angry locals destroyed and looted the administrative building of a Chinese mine after a member of the mining company’s security detail allegedly shot and killed a villager who had been in a mining pit looking for leftover bits of gold.
The conflict grew, as heavily armed militiamen supported the locals in fighting the security forces made up of members of the Central African Republic Army (FACA). One FACA Soldier drowned and another was seriously injured as the militia took control of the town.
“Chinese installations in the city were looted and ransacked, their safes taken away,” Yanga reported, “while some employees, particularly Chinese, were stripped by the militia.”
On September 2, FACA reinforcements deployed, and CAR Minister of Mines Léopold Mboli Fatrane arrived, bringing calm to the village, Yanga reported.
Tension has festered around CAR mines for years.
“Almost all mining projects in the Central African Republic have been systematically attributed to Chinese or Russian companies without any environmental constraint,” reported CNC journalist Igor Passi Zatoua in March 2019. “This often causes conflicts between foreign operators and residents who use these natural resources for their survival.”
CAR is plagued by instability caused by multiple armed groups competing for power and a portion of the country’s mineral wealth.
Regional government officials visited the town of Bozoum in 2019 and reported four gold mining companies — Tian Xiang, Tian Run, Meng, and SMC Mao — had caused significant environmental damage to the Ouham River, affecting fish stocks and dramatically worsening pollution and water quality.
“Gold mining by the Chinese firms at Bozoum is not profitable for the state and harmful to the population and the environment,” a CAR parliamentary commission reported in July 2019. “The nature of the ecological disaster discovered on-site justifies the immediate, unconditional halt to these activities.”
The Ministry of Mines and Geology, however, allowed operations to continue.
In April 2020, human rights organization Amnesty International urged CAR to suspend the operations of the four Chinese mining companies, charging that they were putting thousands of people at risk.
Catholic missionary Aurelio Gazerra was a key witness in Amnesty International’s report, posting photos and videos, and reporting on the damage to the environment and the community on his Facebook account and for several media outlets.
“The river is in ruins,” he told television network France 24 in April 2019. “The banks are nothing but mountains of gravel and holes filled with water. The water is extremely dirty now, and locals still have to use it to wash themselves and sometimes to drink.”
Gazerra reported on the mining sites near Bozoum on August 29, noting that the Chinese companies had left without remediating the environment.
“A year and a half of work and wild exploitation, and no work of repair,” he wrote on Facebook. It is “a great danger to the population and to the environment.”