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afrol.com, 23 March - A new, official study by the Central African Republic's Water and National Forestry Commission documents the regular intrusion of Sudanese warlords and businessmen into the vast Bangassou Massif forest zone, involved in poaching. Cases of rape, assassinations and humiliation were also reported. The Bangassou Massif is a vast wildlife zone of 1,6 million hectares in the south-eastern part of the Central African Republic (CAR), approximately 8OO km east of the capital Bangui and 400 km west of the southern Sudanese border. The Massif has a dense forest cover as well as areas of forest-savannah transition and is sparsely populated. Wildlife is rich and has been a major provider of bushmeat to the domestic market, including anteater, buffalo, bush pig, gazelle, monkey and wart hog. Other large mammals include leopards, lions and elephants. The Central African socio-ecologist Zéphyrin Mogba and colonel David Wangando of the National Water and Forestry Commission (SEFC) this week presented a study in Bangui, documenting that the resources of Bangassou Massif are being illegally exploited by Sudanese, crossing the long, permeable border. The report had been ordered by the CAR government. The report concludes that the resources of the Massif "are subject of a wild destruction" because of "the seasonal presence of an army of more than 200 strongly armed Sudanese poachers." These poachers are put in connection with the warring parties in neighbouring Southern Sudan, a zone largely depleted of resources after decades of war and natural disasters. According to the SEFC report, the resource exploitation is well organised and has taken institutionalised forms. The report notes the existence of a hierarchy of "businessmen and Sudanese warlords that support the poachers' campaigns on Central African territory." Concluding on the damage on the local environment, David Wangando describes a "massive and non-selective slaughtering of large mammals and small game." The CAR report further documents the correlation between poverty and armed conflict on one side and poaching and the bushmeat trade on the other side. A year 2000 study by the Traffic Network pointed to the root causes behind the so-called "bushmeat crisis" - poverty, diminishing alternative resources, increased commercial trade, significant international trade and inappropriate wildlife ownership and land tenure policies. Other studies have shown that wildlife and other natural resources are at high risk in and around war zones. In eastern CAR, the resource conflict over the Bangassou bushmeat also has turned violent, the armed Sudanese having the upper hand against the local population. The organised Sudanese infiltration of the Bangassou Massif reportedly has violently displaced local poachers and traders in bushmeat. Socio-ecologist Zéphyrin Mogba denounces many assaults on the local population in the report, including "plundering of storerooms, rape, various humiliations, assassinations." The investigators recommend the CAR government to take "massive measures and action to curb the wild and criminal acts to which the population is exposed", and its "concerning effects on the fauna and flora" of the area. The Central African Republic is one of Africa's poorest countries, and has been burdened with political instability for several years, including a period of serious upheaval in 1996 and 1997. The country has also been significantly affected by a spillover of the conflict in neighbouring Congo Kinshasa (to the south), and houses some 10,000 Congolese refugees. Porous boundaries and constant uncontrolled movement of refugees towards and from the conflict zone "have raised fears of proliferation and illicit arms trafficking in the Central African Republic," according to a UN report earlier this year. The government also fears economic and security destabilisation. However, while neighbouring countries since have slipped deeper into violent conflict, the CAR over the last years has been able to hold legislative and presidential elections and embark on major political, social and economic reforms.
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