Central African Republic, not exactly headline news

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a country few people know much about and even fewer people have ever had a chance to visit. For many it is a typical "middle of nowhere" place, landlocked, dry and dusty. It's three and a half million people inhabit one of the poorest countries on the planet, it's index of human development ranked by UNDP 154 out of 162, at the bottom of the globalization ladder. Further important social and economic development indicators are presented by the world fact book (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/fac... and serve to underscore how meagre living conditions in CAR truly are.

The political news now coming out of CAR is equally worrisome, as the stability of the country is yet again crumbling. There is a turbulent history of ethnic strife documented at http://www.euconflict.org/euconflict/gui... and the CAR’s general history is well presented in short and concise terms at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/a... .

French web-sites such as http://www.afric-network.fr/afric/centra... generally provide more detail about CAR than the relatively small collection of English web-sites on CAR (that can be found at http://www.politicalresources.net/centra... There is a rich cultural background to CAR and this site offers interesting details about the country’s people their culture and traditions.

This year the country has been troubled by a series of violent events revolving around a power struggle between former military chief of staff Francois Bozize and President Ange-Felix Patasse, who has held power since he won elections in 1993, ending the 12-year military dictatorship of General Andre Kolingba. Patasse got crucial military help to put down both the May coup attempt and the unrest early this month from Libya's Colonel Moamer Gadhafi. The CAR leader's own guard also includes sbme 100 Libyan troops (other current news is available at http://newafrica.com/news/country.asp?co...

The ongoing political crisis is CAR does not make it into the major international headlines; it is by and large a regional issue of immediate concern to CAR’s five direct neighbours as well as to Libya. Thus, Sudan is to host a summit on the continuing crisis in the Central African Republic, http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f...

With some luck, foreign political interests in CAR’s political affairs can step back and allow for a national reconciliation process that will offer some broad-based perspective on how to lift the country off the ground. Given that CAR is endowed with a valuable base of natural resources such as diamonds, timber, gold and oil, a promising economic foundation could be laid that provides a real alternative to the indeed limited agricultural potential (with only 3% arable land, no permanent crops and a mere 5% permanent pastures).Some good news from a hard place like CAR could certainly be welcomed.

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