Since President Ange-Félix Patassé came to power in 1993, the Central African Republic has almost disintegrated. Another attempt to put it back together began on 26 February, at a conference chaired by Mali’s ex-President, General Amadou Toumani Touré. The General is struggling to implement the agreements signed at a Franco-African summit in January 1997, under which about 1,000 troops from Gabon, Burkina Faso, Togo, Chad, Mali and Senegal (with logistic support from France) were meant to disarm the CAR’s warring factions. This force, known as Misab (Mission International de Suivi des Accords de Bangui ) has disarmed about 85 per cent of the soldiers who mutinied against the Patassé regime three times in 1996. Most of these ex-mutineers and their spokesman Captain Anice Saulet are Yakoma from the Presidential Guard of Patassé’s Yakoma predecessor, ex-President André Kolingba." />

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Vol 58 No 9

Published 28th April 2017


Zambia

To sue or to schmooze

Ministers are torn between demanding cash from a mining giant accused of fraud and maintaining a cosy relationship

The move by Zambia's largely government-owned mining investment company to sue First Quantum Minerals for fraud has put its chief executive officer Pius Kasolo at loggerheads with figures close to President Edgar Lungu. Under Kasolo, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings, which holds Zambia's stake in foreign-owned privatised mines, brought a suit against FQM with the Lusaka High Court in November and simultaneously filed a Notice of Arbitration in London claiming the Vancouver-based company cheated Zambia of US$2.3 billion. ZCCM-IH accuses FQM of defrauding it by using money from its Kansanshi copper and gold mine as cheap financing for its other operations without the state investment company's consent.

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